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00:05 Speaker A
The space trade is entering a new phase. It’s not just about rockets and launches anymore. It’s about data, connectivity and infrastructure that can generate repeatable revenue. We’re navigating how to play the space sector with the Yahoo Finance Playbook. And joining me now is Greg Pendi of Disruptive Technology Equity Research, Director there at Clear Street.
00:26 Speaker A
Thank you so much for joining us.
00:27 Greg Pendy
Thanks for having me.
00:28 Speaker A
First, let’s sort of start out. We’ve been hearing the buzzword AI all year long and you say that there’s actually a use case within space and you have one pick on that. Can you break it down?
00:39 Greg Pendy
Absolutely. So, when you think of AI, what makes AI really great is good content and good data feeding the AI, uh, machines, a large language model. So, within that space, we like Planet Labs, it’s ticker PL, it trades on the New York Stock Exchange. And what’s unique about Planet Labs is they have these Dove satellites right now that map the entire Earth every single day. So, we’re talking terabytes of data, hundreds of thousands of images.
01:12 Greg Pendy
And they’ve been doing this for 8 plus years. However, it’s AI that’s really unlocking the value in that database because now you don’t have to rely on humans to go through all of that data. You can actually use, um, AI analysis to get instant insights to find patterns and trends and anomalies, uh, going on within the entire Earth.
01:38 Speaker A
And so now that’s one of your themes. Now, the next theme that you have actually has to do with your phone and when you’re in a subway or something and you see that satellite pop up. Most people probably don’t realize that there’s actually a company behind that. It’s called Global Star. So, break down that use case.
01:54 Greg Pendy
Absolutely. So we’ve all have cell phones on us now 24/7. Uh but we’ve still since the late 90s when cell phones took off, depend on a cell tower here on a terrestrial cell tower. And that can be challenging in remote areas. Obviously, the ocean is just a no-go. Um and it’s just uneconomical for them to continue to put cell towers in areas, uh certain areas.
02:22 Greg Pendy
However, when you think about space, that’s the, that can bridge that gap and it can give you global connectivity. So it’s satellites that can be the hand-off signal so that you’re now going to hopefully be connected at all times. When we look at Global Star, they’re working right now with Apple and essentially, if you have an Apple iPhone 14 or higher, um you can now receive text and SMS messages and they’re also looking to build out a new uh constellation with Apple, uh which will be a few years out, which will have increased functionality.
03:02 Speaker A
So more room to run on that stock. I believe it’s up over 100%. Another use case here is with intuitive machines. Now it is down year to date, but you recently raised your price target on the stock. That price target is now $25. Walk us through what that company does and how that sort of plays into this different take on the space trade.
03:22 Greg Pendy
Absolutely. So now we’re going to the moon.
03:24 Speaker A
Okay, we’re at the moon now, Greg.
03:25 Greg Pendy
Yeah. So with intuitive machines, uh there were a couple things that really um got us to raise our price target. First of all, they are doing an accretive acquisition to get into satellite manufacturing. Um and you know, we’re very positive on that deal. But importantly, I would note that in mid December, uh Trump put out a space agenda and it should also be known that um Jared Isaacman uh was appointed the administrator of NASA and he’s a big proponent for space exploration in our view. And that uh agenda has not only returning humans to the moon in 2028, but also an objective for a permanent presence on the moon by 2030.
04:12 Greg Pendy
Um and that plays right into intuitive machines because um they have some big projects that they are working on. One will be the NASA Near Space Network, uh which will in mid 2026, they plan on sending their first of five satellites to the moon to help create a constellation for communication reasons and GPS. And then in addition, a catalyst to watch, we think in early next year, will be the lunar terrain vehicle contract which they are one of three players bidding for.
04:50 Speaker A
Now Greg, super quickly, SpaceX rumored to go public next year. What does that make for the entire space trade?
04:56 Greg Pendy
I think a lot more investors are becoming aware of what’s going on in low Earth orbit. It’s just drawing a lot of attention on how low Earth orbit can change our lives here on Earth, whether it be through the earth observation data or the connectivity data.
05:15 Speaker A
Greg Pendi, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate your time and so much to look out for within this trade. So we’ll definitely keep an eye on it. Thank you so much.