Data Centers In Space? + Planet Labs CEO Talks ‘Large Earth Models’

AI and satellite imagery are quickly converging to create “planetary intelligence,” a new generation of systems capable of capturing and analyzing images of Earth in real time. This episode explores how the AI infrastructure race could move into orbit, with space-based data centers, falling launch costs, and “large Earth models” potentially transforming the global economy, geopolitics, and the future of artificial intelligence itself.

Host:

Sebastian Mallaby, Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

Guest:

Will Marshall, CEO and Cofounder, Planet Labs

We discuss:

• How AI could transform the space economy more profoundly than the invention of the internet, and potentially move the world’s supercomputers off Earth entirely.
• Why Planet Labs founder Will Marshall believes satellites and AI are converging into what he calls “planetary intelligence.”
• Why the real driver of the space boom wasn’t just rocket technology, but the smartphone revolution and the miniaturization of electronics.
• How commercial satellite imagery exposed Russia’s invasion buildup before the war in Ukraine, including the discovery of a pontoon bridge on the Belarus border.
• Why AI is making satellite data dramatically more valuable by allowing models to analyze satellite images in real time rather than having to send individual images back to Earth.
• Whether orbital compute infrastructure could expand the space economy by a factor of ten, and reshape the balance of geopolitical and corporate power.
• The idea of “large Earth models”—AI systems trained not on the text of the internet, but on continuous visual data from the physical world.
• Why tech leaders increasingly believe AI data centers could move into orbit, powered by uninterrupted solar energy in space.
• How falling launch costs from companies like SpaceX could make space-based computing economically viable within the next decade.

Mentioned on the Episode:

“Planet Successfully Runs AI in Space,” Planet

“Thales Alenia Space Reveals Results of ASCEND Feasibility Study On Space Data Centers,” Thales Alenia Space

“Is AI Putting Graduates Out of Work Already?,” The Economist

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The Spillover is a production of the Council on Foreign Relations. The opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the hosts and guests, not of the Council, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.