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Wall Street grew increasingly obsessed with the artificial intelligence boom this year, pouring money into chips, data centers and applications. But investors looking beyond Silicon Valley found outsized returns in another location: space. Some of the year's biggest market winners were defense companies that benefited from renewed interest in space exploration and military reindustrialization. President Donald Trump's military expansion plan includes a $175 billion "Golden Dome" project and efforts to bolster American shipbuilding. In looking to upgrade military tech and return astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, the government is leaning on more companies outside of traditional defense names such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman . Recently appointed NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told CNBC last week that Trump's recommitment to exploring the moon is key to unlocking the "orbital economy." The space and defense boon has opened a range of opportunities for high-profile private companies, including Palmer Luckey's Anduril and Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is aiming to go public next year. SpaceX is the parent of satellite internet provider Starlink. Among companies currently on the public market, investors have snapped up satellite names, from legacy providers such as EchoStar to newer players like Planet Labs. They're among a handful of satellite stocks that have more than tripled in value this year. Planet Labs
Will Marshall is the Co-Founder and CEO of Planet Labs Inc. with a model of the Dove satellite at their headquarters in downtown San Francisco, Calif., seen on Thursday September 8, 2016, where they create the shoe box size satellites that they send into space that gather photographs of earth. Michael Macor | Getty Images
Planet Labs , based in San Francisco, has seen its stock surge almost 400% this year due to booming demand for satellite imagery and space analytics. The company, which went public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company, is now valued at $6.2 billion. In its fiscal third-quarter earnings report this month, Planet Labs topped analyst estimates and lifted its guidance. During the period, Planet Labs more than tripled its backlog from a year ago. The company said that since the end of the quarter, it launched two of its Pelican satellites and 36 earth imaging SuperDove satellites. In 2025, Planet Labs inked new government and defense deals, including contracts with NATO and the European Space Agency. The company also renewed a partnership to provide Earth data to the U.S. Navy and won a $13.5 million task order for commercial satellite data with NASA. Planet Labs is working closely with Google on its Suncatcher project focused on AI and machine learning in space. The company is aiming to launch two prototype satellites equipped with Google's custom AI chips called tensor processing units, or TPUs, by early 2027. EchoStar
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