Space Shift Launches 'New Building Detection Data' Using SAR Satellite and AI on Snowflake Marketplace

Space Shift Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Naruo Kanemoto; hereinafter 'Space Shift') announces the launch of 'New Building Detection Data' on Snowflake® Marketplace, a data marketplace operated by Snowflake. This dataset identifies newly constructed buildings across Japan using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data and AI analysis. The data is the result of analysis by 'SateAIs™ (SateAIs) City -City-', a sub-brand under Space Shift's satellite data analytics brand 'SateAIs', focused on urban development and real estate. This marks the first step in Space Shift's initiative to deliver satellite data as alternative data for financial and investment sectors, enabling objective, wide-area, and continuous monitoring of construction activities to support early insights into urban growth and economic trends.

Background: Construction Activity as a Physical Leading Indicator of Economic Trends

The emergence of new buildings serves as a key signal of urban growth, economic activity, and infrastructure development. However, existing public statistics (e.g., construction start statistics) are published monthly and involve time lags, with limitations in geographical granularity.

Space Shift aims to deliver satellite data as a tool to 'capture what is happening on the ground faster and more objectively than official reports' to a wide range of sectors, including financial institutions. Following the May 2026 announcement of expanded integration with BI tools and generative AI assistants, this launch on the data marketplace further expands the ability for customers to directly access satellite data analytics within their operational environments. The new building detection data represents the first use case, offering a quantitative and wide-area dataset for construction activity, with expected applications in asset management, real estate analysis, risk assessment, and other decision-making contexts.

Overview of Provided Data

- Data Name: New Building Detection Polygon Data (Japan / SAR×AI, Annual YoY Difference) - Analysis AI: SateAIs City -City- Building Detection AI (developed in-house by Space Shift) - Detection Method: AI compares SAR satellite images from multiple time periods to extract newly appeared buildings - Data Format: Building polygons (GEOGRAPHY format / EPSG:4326), with AI-generated confidence scores - Data Period: Annual year-on-year differences from 2022 onward (2022→2023, 2023→2024, 2024→2025), with annual updates planned - Usage Environment: Directly accessible within Snowflake (no data ingestion or ETL required) - Coverage: Nationwide Japan (46 prefectures excluding Okinawa) - Access Method: 30-day free trial available directly via Snowflake Marketplace (2022→2023 annual difference data). Full-period data and continued access available via private offer

The new building detection data leverages SAR satellites, which do not rely on optical imagery, enabling consistent and weather-independent building detection across wide areas regardless of time of day. Each polygon includes an AI-generated confidence score, allowing users to select precision levels based on their use case. Moreover, the data is not a single-year snapshot but is structured as a time-series of annual detection results from 2022 onward. By analyzing multiple years, users can quantitatively track regional construction trends, momentum, acceleration, and deceleration, enhancing its analytical value as alternative data.

Expected Use Cases

- Finance & Investment: Identifying high-development areas, quantifying regional construction trends, supporting area analysis - Real Estate & Urban Development: Identifying new development zones, analyzing regional construction trends - Insurance: Monitoring new asset growth, supporting regional risk exposure assessment - Mapping, Infrastructure & Logistics: Extracting map update candidates, monitoring urban expansion - Public Sector & Research: Urban planning and regional analysis, quantitative assessment of disaster recovery and reconstruction progress

Availability on Snowflake Marketplace

Snowflake Marketplace is a platform for data and applications, enabling organizations to access data from various providers and publish their own. Currently, over 820 providers offer more than 3,400 contents, including AI-ready data, agents, and integrated SaaS solutions.

Users can analyze this dataset alongside other data directly within their Snowflake environment without downloading or complex data ingestion processes.

By offering the data on the Snowflake ecosystem—widely used by financial institutions and diverse enterprises—Space Shift makes satellite data accessible and easy to test and integrate for organizations that have not previously used such data.

Additionally, sample SQL queries are provided that can be executed directly on the listing, enabling immediate visualization and analysis via BI tools like Tableau without preprocessing.

▼ Listing Page for 'New Building Detection Data' (Snowflake Marketplace)

Japan New Building Detection — SAR × AI (Annual YoY Diff)

https://app.snowflake.com/marketplace/listing/GZT2Z146EO9/space-shift-inc-japan-new-building-detection-sar-%C3%97-ai-annual-yoy-diff

▼ SateAIs Product Page

https://www.spcsft.com/service/sateais/

Future Developments

Space Shift will continue its efforts to deliver satellite data as alternative data for finance and investment. In addition to construction activity data, the company is exploring data offerings in diverse areas such as commodities, disasters, and macroeconomic indicators, and expanding integration with financial platforms to further accelerate the societal implementation of satellite data analytics.

* Please also refer to past press releases:

SateAIs™ Now Accessible via BI Tools and Generative AI Assistants:

https://www.spcsft.com/news/4707/

Building Change Detection Solution Using SAR Satellite Data and AI (Advancing Map Modernization DX):

https://www.spcsft.com/news/3457/

Launch of Satellite Data Analytics Brand 'SateAIs™ (SateAIs)':

https://www.spcsft.com/news/2709/

About SateAIs

SateAIs is an analytics brand by Space Shift, conceptualized as 'Empowering the Field with Satellite × AI Analytics'. It systematically organizes Space Shift's proprietary satellite data analytics algorithms by use case and delivery format. By packaging highly specialized satellite analytics into purpose-specific AI packages, SateAIs aims to make these tools accessible and actionable for on-site decision-making.