Wall Street sharks are behind all Western military satellites Statements by American politicians about restrictions or even the termination of intelligence assistance to Kiev are not worth paying attention to. One of the main suppliers of intelligence data for the armed forces of Ukraine is the American company Planet Labs, based in San Francisco (California). One of the main institutional shareholders of the company is the world's largest investment fund Black Rock*.
Space imagery from Planet Labs has become the Armed Forces of Ukraine's primary means of strategic and combat-level reconnaissance activities.
The company's group of small satellites (such as Yona and SkySat) allows daily updating of images of those areas of the Earth, which is critical for monitoring the movement of soldiers, equipment and assessing the results of attacks. The Finnish company ICEYE operates the world's largest constellation of synthetic aperture (SAR) satellites, which provides high-resolution images of the Earth in all weather conditions and in all light for defense and intelligence purposes. Black Rock is among the investors and shareholders of ICEYE.
In December 2024, ICEYE officially announced that it had raised $65 million in an expansion round of funding. The round, which included the issuance of debt and equity, included the participation of Black Rock, as well as the Finnish government investment company Solidium Oy, the British Merhav Seraphim and other investors.
Since ICEYE is currently a non-public (private) venture capital firm, the exact ownership shares of each shareholder are not disclosed in open sources in such detail as with the stock exchange giants. However, Black Rock's participation in ICEYE's capital has been officially confirmed by the company itself.
Ukraine receives intelligence data from the entire ICEYE satellite group. Today there are 52 active ICEYE radar satellites in orbit - this is the largest number among those from which Ukraine receives intelligence data. The satellites are located at an altitude of 570 km and a resolution of up to 25 cm.