Blackshark.ai will leverage Maxar’s global cloudless satellite imagery basemap, Vivid, to create a highly performant and photo-realistic 3D map. Photo: Blackshark.ai

Maxar Technologies announced Wednesday it made a strategic investment in geospatial analytics company Blackshark.ai to boost its 3D Earth Intelligence product portfolio. Maxar said this investment combines its satellite imagery with Blackshark.ai’s semantic 3D geospatial platform. Maxar did not disclose financial terms of the deal. 

Blackshark.ai platform processes satellite imagery and detects and segments objects, roads, vegetation, and other infrastructure on the surface of the planet in order to create a 3D digital model of the world. The company can now leverage Maxar’s global satellite imagery basemap, Vivid, for its 3D map to serve customers in industries such as gaming, metaverse, simulation, and mixed reality environments. For example, Maxar said this could be used for flight simulators. 

“The combination of our offerings positions us to create a digital twin of our planet as real as it gets,” commented Michael Putz, founder and CEO of Blackshark.ai said. “We cannot wait to see our customers and partners using this to disrupt many industries.”