Planet Labs (PL) Stock Rises 4% as Berlin Factory Opens for Europe’s Defense Boom

TLDR

• Planet Labs opened a 5,700-square-meter satellite manufacturing facility in Berlin, Germany on Tuesday
• The factory will produce Pelican satellites starting this autumn, with the first unit ready before year-end
• EU defense spending is expected to hit €454 billion this year, up 9% year over year
• Planet Labs reported Q2 fiscal 2027 revenue of $116.1 million, up 58% year over year
• Wall Street has a Strong Buy consensus on PL, with an average price target of $36.30, implying 113% upside

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Planet Labs opened a new satellite manufacturing facility in Berlin on Tuesday, targeting Europe’s fast-growing defense and intelligence market. The 5,700-square-meter factory is located in Berlin’s Mitte district and will produce the company’s Pelican satellites.

PL stock was trading around $17 on Tuesday, up roughly 4% on the day.

Planet Labs PBC, PL

Production is set to begin this autumn, with the first Berlin-built satellite expected to be complete before the end of 2026. The facility has capacity to produce up to 60 satellites per year once fully operational.

CEO and co-founder Will Marshall said the company has built and launched 688 satellites over 15 years, ranking second in the world by total satellites. He said the Berlin factory will help Europe build its own scaled Earth observation fleet.

Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Katherina Reiche, attended the opening. She called sovereign satellite intelligence “a prerequisite for security, resilience and genuine strategic autonomy.”

Europe’s Defense Build-Up Driving Demand

EU defense spending is forecast to reach €454 billion this year, a 9% increase from last year. That backdrop is creating strong demand for sovereign satellite services across NATO member states.

Planet Labs already has real traction in the region. The company recently won a German federal contract for dedicated satellite constellation access. It also delivered a sovereign satellite to Sweden within four months of contract signature, accelerating that country’s program by four years.

Europe accounts for more than 30% of Planet Labs’ global workforce. The company has offices in Berlin, Haarlem, Ljubljana, Graz, and London. Its ground station network across Germany, the UK, Norway, and Iceland handles nearly 50% of all satellite data downloads globally.

The Berlin team will grow by 70 employees, bringing the city’s total headcount to around 220.

Revenue Up 58% as Pipeline Builds

Planet Labs reported revenue of $116.1 million in Q2 fiscal 2027, which ended in July. That was up 58% from the same period a year earlier.

The company had roughly $4 billion in deals in the pipeline as of its early September earnings call. Around $1 billion of those are expected to close in the coming quarters, according to CEO Marshall.

Marshall said rising global interest in satellite imagery is partly driven by ongoing conflicts. Commercial satellite imagery has played a direct role on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The first Berlin-built Pelican satellites are scheduled to launch on an Isar Aerospace Spectrum rocket in early 2027.

Wall Street rates PL a Strong Buy, based on eight Buy ratings and two Holds over the past three months. The average price target sits at $36.30, implying about 113% upside from current levels.