Artificial Intelligence · Profile from AI Research Companion
Snowflake
The cloud data warehouse founded in 2012 by two Oracle architects and a Dutch database researcher, which separated storage from compute, charged by consumption, and in September 2020 completed the largest software IPO to that date (~$3.4bn raised at $120 a share; shares closed ~112% higher on the first day). It became the archetype of usage-based software: product revenue grew from ~$554m (fiscal 2021) to ~$4.47bn (fiscal 2026, year to January 2026), but growth fell from >100% to ~30% as customers optimised spending in 2022–23, and its stock lost much of its 2021 peak value. In February 2024 its board replaced Frank Slootman with Sridhar Ramaswamy, a former Google advertising chief whose AI-search start-up Neeva Snowflake had bought in 2023; the shares fell ~18% that day. Months later, criminals used stolen passwords to break into customers' Snowflake accounts (Mandiant notified ~165 potentially exposed organisations; DOJ statements in 2026 used ">150" and ">165" for organisations whose data was taken), including AT&T and Ticketmaster (2024). Under Ramaswamy Snowflake pivoted to AI: its own Arctic model (April 2024), Cortex AI functions, the open Polaris catalog for Apache Iceberg, Snowflake Intelligence agents, Postgres (Crunchy Data, 2025), $200m partnerships with Anthropic (December 2025) and OpenAI (February 2026), and a $6bn five-year AWS commitment (May 2026). Growth re-accelerated to ~37% in the July 2026 quarter, with fiscal 2027 product revenue guided to ~$6.07bn (company).
At a glance
- Founded
- July 2012 in San Mateo, California, by Benoît Dageville and Thierry Cruanes (both from Oracle) and Marcin Żukowski (co-founder of Vectorwise); incubated by Sutter Hill Ventures (Mike Speiser, first CEO)
- Headquarters
- "No headquarters" policy since 2021; principal executive office listed in Bozeman, Montana (filings); large offices in San Mateo, Bellevue, Berlin, Warsaw and elsewhere
- Ownership / structure
- Public (NYSE: SNOW) since September 16, 2020. Widely held; Berkshire Hathaway and Salesforce Ventures bought $250m each in concurrent private placements at the IPO (S-1); Berkshire later sold its stake (reported 2024, verify)
- Leadership (2026)
- Sridhar Ramaswamy (CEO since February 2024); Brian Robins (CFO, from September 2025, succeeding Mike Scarpelli, verify); Benoît Dageville (co-founder, president of product); Frank Slootman (CEO 2019–24; chairman after stepping down, verify current role)
- Products
- AI Data Cloud: warehouse and lakehouse (native tables and Apache Iceberg), Snowpark (Python, Java, Scala), Snowpark Container Services, Unistore/hybrid tables, Snowflake Postgres (from Crunchy Data), Openflow (ingestion), Horizon/Polaris catalog, Marketplace and data sharing, Streamlit, Cortex AI (LLM functions, search, analyst), Snowflake Intelligence (agents), Observe (observability, from 2026)
- Scale
- Fiscal 2026 product revenue ~$4.47bn (+29%), RPO ~$9.77bn (+42%), NRR 125% (January 31, 2026); Q2 fiscal 2027 product revenue ~$1.49bn (+37%), 828 customers above $1m trailing product revenue, NRR 126% (July 31, 2026) (company)
- Market value
- IPO valuation ~$33bn at $120; ~$70bn at first-day close; peak above ~$120bn (November 2021, market data); shares rose ~30–38% after Q1 fiscal 2027 results (May 27, 2026, reported)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding and the separation of storage and compute (2012); the record IPO (2020); the consumption optimisation slowdown (2022–23); the CEO change and Neeva (2023–24); the customer-account breaches (2024); Arctic and Cortex (2024); Polaris and the Iceberg retreat (2024); Snowflake Intelligence, Postgres and the lab partnerships (2025–26)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2012
Founding and the Cloud Data Warehouse
Founding / launch
2020
IPO the Largest Software Listing
IPO
2023
Consumption Optimisation and the Growth Slowdown
Business-model stress (failure to sustain growth)
2024
Arctic and Cortex AI
Model release / product launch
2024
CEO Change Slootman to Ramaswamy
Restructuring / leadership change (preceded by the Neeva acquisition)
2024
Customer Account Breaches UNC5537
Security incident / lawsuit (response and remediation)
2024
Polaris Iceberg and Open Formats
Launch / pivot (from proprietary storage to open formats)
2025
Snowflake Intelligence Postgres and AI Partnerships
Acquisition / partnership / launch