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Sourcery with Molly O'SheaSourcery with Molly O'Shea

Planet CEO Will Marshall talks Space, AI, and Where to find the Aliens?

I visited Planet Labs (NYSE: PL) in San Francisco to tour its satellite manufacturing facility and sit down with Co-Founder & CEO Will Marshall.

Molly O'SheahostWill Marshallguest
Nov 5, 202640mWatch on YouTube ↗

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Episode Details

EPISODE INFO

Released
November 5, 2026
Duration
40m
Channel
Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
Watch on YouTube
▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

I visited Planet Labs (NYSE: PL) in San Francisco to tour its satellite manufacturing facility and sit down with Co-Founder & CEO Will Marshall. Planet has built more than 700 satellites, second only to SpaceX, and operates the only constellation capable of imaging Earth's entire landmass daily, generating roughly 4 million images per day for defense, government, and commercial customers. Will explains Planet's work with Google on Project Suncatcher and NVIDIA-powered compute in orbit, why AI data centers in space could eventually be cheaper than on Earth, and how its satellite intelligence supports Ukraine, the US Navy, and governments building sovereign space capabilities. We also discuss Planet's growing defense business, AI-powered Earth monitoring, its manufacturing expansion in San Francisco and Berlin, the search for extraterrestrial life, and lessons from 15 years of building Planet. Check out Planet's AI App: https://ai.planet.com Will Marshall: https://x.com/Will4Planet Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/google-is-putting-ai-data-centers-in-space-planet-labs/id1738124704?i=1000800029684 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4elZqMA7DypaIHa6hv65PT?si=90m_VWxbQ-CDXdPWp0GEbg 𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒

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• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery Follow Sourcery for the latest updates! https://www.sourcery.vc Disclosure: Paid Ad. Agents are an experimental AI tool. Its output may be inaccurate and is not investment advice. Public Holding’s, Inc. makes no guarantees about its accuracy or reliability—verify independently before use. Brokerage accounts and services provided by Open to the Public Investing, Inc. See additional disclosures at https://public.com/disclosures/agenticdisclosures. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Will Marshall, Co-Founder & CEO at Planet Labs (00:49) “We go where the cool people are” (01:46) What it takes to image Earth every day (04:13) Why information is power in modern war (07:39) Why countries want their own satellites (08:34) How Wall Street and Big Tech are watching from space (10:22) The new face of warfare (11:16) The most surprising uses of satellite imagery (14:49) Imaging any point on Earth within 30 minutes (17:24) What if you could ask a satellite a question? (19:41) Every AI story comes back to compute (20:38) Do data centers in space make sense? (25:32) Why satellites are so sensitive (26:55) The NASA maverick who made Planet Labs possible (28:37) Who's on Planet Labs no-go list (29:18) Will's prediction on finding aliens (33:34) Inside NASA's alien hotline (35:05) How a childhood hero inspired Will’s space career (38:21) Why persistence matters most

SPEAKERS

  • Molly O'Shea

    host

    Host of Sourcery with Molly O'Shea, interviewing founders and executives about technology and business.

  • Will Marshall

    guest

    CEO of Planet Labs, discussing satellite imagery, AI, and space infrastructure.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Sourcery with Molly O'Shea, featuring Molly O'Shea and Will Marshall, Planet CEO Will Marshall talks Space, AI, and Where to find the Aliens? explores Planet Labs CEO on daily Earth imaging, AI, and orbiting compute Will Marshall explains how Planet Labs manufactures and operates a satellite fleet that images Earth daily and sells information derived from that data for security, sustainability, and commercial decision-making.

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