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Snowflake

NYSE: SNOW · USD

Snowflake (SNOW) Economic Moat Analysis—

Avantages concurrentiels, preuves datées et risques d’érosion.

Analyse à actualiser

Incertain avantage concurrentiel

Snowflake demonstrates strong repeat demand through 126% net revenue retention, 37% quarterly product revenue growth and 828 customers spending over $1 million annually. Non-cancelable contracts provide current protection, but the passages do not establish durable switching costs or economically significant network effects. Open formats explicitly reduce lock-in. Pricing power remains unestablished because consumption growth and gross margins do not isolate realized pricing outcomes. This is insufficient evidence of a durable moat, rather than demonstrated competitive weakness.

Switching costs

Integrated data workflows and substantial repeat consumption suggest customer embeddedness. Generally non-cancelable capacity contracts provide demonstrated protection during their terms; migration costs and durable customer dependency remain unquantified.

Durabilité
Protection exists during contractual terms. Continued expansion supports current customer value, but does not establish how long switching friction persists after renewal.
Concurrents
AWS, Azure, GCP
Risques d’érosion
Open formats reduce lock-in, customers select resources independently, and consumption timing remains discretionary. Negotiated discounts and rollover rights constrain monetization.
Ce qui invaliderait la thèse
The embeddedness thesis would weaken materially if cohort spending remained below 100% net revenue retention across successive reporting periods, large spending cohorts contracted, or disclosed migrations demonstrated low switching friction.
Preuves (5) · Contre-preuves (6)

Network effects

Live data sharing and the marketplace create a plausible mechanism through which additional participants could increase platform utility. Management asserts network effects, but the catalog does not demonstrate their incremental economic contribution or defensibility.

Durabilité
Potential rather than an established durable advantage: customer growth alone does not show that participants attract other participants or make competing networks less useful.
Concurrents
AWS, Azure, GCP
Risques d’érosion
Open formats and competing cloud ecosystems may permit participation across platforms. Sharing activity, exclusivity and network-driven retention are not quantified.
Ce qui invaliderait la thèse
The thesis would fail if expanding participation did not increase cross-customer sharing or retention, or if equivalent sharing across competing platforms removed any incremental benefit from Snowflake's participant base.
Preuves (3) · Contre-preuves (3)

Évolution depuis la dernière analyse

  • Maintained the uncertain moat verdict after re-examining current catalog evidence; all four moat criteria remain null.
  • Retained retention at 3, margin resilience and contractual freedom at 2, and management grades of 2, 2, 3 and 2 using current catalog citations. Realized pricing remains null because disclosed discounts do not establish comparable realized price trends.
  • Added explicit falsifiable conditions for the switching-cost and network-effect theses, and distinguished adopted compensation arrangements from future vesting outcomes.
  • Excluded prior-analysis assertions about July results unless independently supported by this catalog; the July revenue, retention and spending-cohort figures are supported here.

Limites de l’analyse

  • All sources are issuer disclosures. Reported operating results and contractual terms support numerical assessments, while management's network-effect, differentiation and AI leadership assertions do not establish exceptional durability.
  • Source dates are filing dates, retaining dateKind=filed; operating measurement dates and subsequent governance adoption dates are distinguished from those filing dates.
  • Only AWS, Azure and GCP are explicitly identified as competitors by name. Other cloud companies, legacy database vendors, observability providers and emerging entrants are disclosed generically; their individual competitive positions cannot be assessed.
  • The catalog lacks quantified migration costs, gross customer retention, sharing-network activity, exclusivity, competitive win rates and comparable realized unit pricing. Net revenue retention measures cohort spending rather than customer survival or renewal rates.
  • Compensation and governance disclosures are available, but the supplied ownership passages do not provide usable executive ownership amounts. Alignment is assessed from actual award terms and attainment without ownership assumptions.
  • Customer counts can include multiple accounts within one organization and are adjusted for corporate activity. Acquisition benefits and long-term per-share returns remain unproven.

Indicateurs financiers à confronter à la thèse

Ratios calculés à partir des publications annuelles. Une valeur manquante reste indisponible. Les graphiques détaillés sont accessibles dans les autres onglets.

Indicateurs financiers à confronter à la thèse
PériodeGross marginOperating marginROICFCF margin
202262.4%-58.6%—7.7%
202365.3%-40.8%—25.2%
202468.0%-39.0%—29.0%
202566.5%-40.2%—25.2%
202667.2%-30.6%—23.9%

Pouvoir de fixation des prix—

Données vérifiées insuffisantes pour attribuer un score.

Management—

Données vérifiées insuffisantes pour attribuer un score.

Sources et méthode

Analyse à actualiser · Mis à jour 19/10/2026 · Version 9

Interprétation IA fondée sur des extraits vérifiés. Les déclarations de l’entreprise et les limites de couverture restent explicites.

Méthode quality-scores-2 : six catégories de même poids. Le score global exige une couverture complète. Les données manquantes ne valent pas zéro. Les évaluations qualitatives sont des interprétations sourcées, pas des probabilités. 1/6 · 23/10/2026

Moat—

Awaiting a sourced assessment under the current scoring policy and financial basis.

Pouvoir de fixation des prix—

Awaiting a sourced assessment under the current scoring policy and financial basis.

Prévisibilité85

Five consecutive annual periods. Equal weights: nondeclining revenue frequency; revenue-growth volatility (5–40pp); positive FCF frequency; FCF-margin volatility (3–20pp). Stability indicator, not a growth forecast.

Nondeclining revenue years (%)
100.00
Revenue growth volatility (pp)
16.68
Positive FCF years (%)
100.00
FCF margin volatility (pp)
7.44

Solidité financière—

Missing required inputs: debtFcfGrade, netDebtEbitGrade. Equal-weight grades: debt/FCF (1–8x), net debt/earnings before interest and tax (0–5x), interest service (1–12x), current ratio (0.75–2x). Earnings use reported operating income, or reported pretax profit plus reported interest expense when operating income is unavailable. Interest service uses earnings/interest expense; if unavailable, it uses reported operating cash flow/cash interest paid, without relabeling cash paid as accrued expense. Nonpositive cash flow/earnings score 0 for their service component; reported zero interest with a positive numerator scores 100. Net cash scores 100 for net leverage. Missing disclosures remain unavailable. General nonfinancial-company rubric, not a credit rating; exceptional and nonoperating gains are not normalized out. IFRS finance-cost and cash-flow classifications retain their reported scope.

interestCoverageGrade
0.00
currentRatioGrade
43.90
Interest coverage (x)
-172.95
Current ratio (x)
1.30

Allocation du capital—

Missing required inputs: operatingReturn. Three-year equal-weight indicators: pretax return on average invested capital (0–25%; equity + debt − cash, each year and its prior year), share-count growth (0–5%, lower better), share-based cost/revenue (2–20%, lower better), consolidated FCF/net income (0–1x). Return uses reported operating income or, if unavailable, EBIT calculated from reported pretax profit plus reported interest expense; exceptional/nonoperating gains are not normalized out. Share-based cost uses the reported cash-flow add-back or, if absent, separately reported recognized compensation expense; the latter never becomes an FCF adjustment. Nonpositive net income scores 0 for cash conversion; absent income/FCF stays unavailable. Nonpositive invested capital has no defined return and remains unavailable. Does not establish acquisition quality or buyback timing.

3-year average dilution (%)
1.93
3-year average SBC / revenue (%)
38.85
cashConversionGrade
0.00

Qualité du management—

Awaiting a sourced assessment under the current scoring policy and financial basis.

Preuves

•Net revenue retention rate of 126%

Second-quarter fiscal 2027 financial highlights; net revenue retention · Dépôt 02/09/2026

•828 customers with trailing 12-month product revenue greater than $1 million, representing 27% year-over-year growth •829 Forbes Global 2000 customers •Remaining performance obligations of $9.00 billion, representing 30% year-over-year growth

Second-quarter fiscal 2027 financial highlights; enterprise spending cohorts and RPO · Dépôt 02/09/2026

Product revenue of $1.49 billion in the second quarter, representing 37% year-over-year growth Financial Highlights: •Revenue of $1.55 billion in the second quarter, representing 35% year-over-year growth

Second-quarter fiscal 2027 reported product revenue and growth · Dépôt 02/09/2026

Within the compute layer, users can clean and prepare their data, including any required metadata and business semantics, to create governed, unified data records that are AI ready and are written back to the storage layer.

Platform architecture; governed data records and business semantics · Dépôt 04/09/2026

Customer contracts are generally non-cancelable during the contract term, although customers can terminate for breach if the Company materially fails to perform.

Revenue recognition; non-cancelable customer contracts · Dépôt 20/03/2026

71 Table of Contents Comparison of the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, 2026 and 2025 Revenue Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2026 2025 % Change (dollars in thousands) Revenue: Product $ 4,472,317 $ 3,462,422 29% Professional services and other 211,629 163,974 29% Total $ 4,683,946 $ 3,626,396 29% Percentage of revenue: Product 95% 95% Professional services and other 5% 5% Total 100% 100% Product revenue increased $1.0 billion for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026, compared to the prior fiscal year, primarily due to increased consumption of our platform by existing customers, as evidenced by our net revenue retention rate of 125% as of January 31, 2026.

Fiscal 2026 revenue comparison; existing-customer consumption and net revenue retention · Dépôt 20/03/2026

In recent years, we have adopted open data formats like Apache Iceberg tables to allow customers to use our platform to process data stored in external customer-controlled environments outside of Snowflake, and we have introduced a significant number of new features and expanded into new product categories like AI and transactions.

Competition; adoption of open formats and external customer-controlled storage · Dépôt 20/03/2026

These changes are driving increased competition, both because there is less customer “lock in” when our products are used in external environments, and also because we are competing across more product categories, each of which is subject to distinct customer requirements and preferences.

Competition; reduced customer lock-in and broader competitive exposure · Dépôt 20/03/2026

Customers are allowed to select compute, storage, and data transfer resources separately, at their discretion.

Business model; independent customer selection of resources · Dépôt 04/09/2026

However, the amount and timing of revenue recognition are generally dependent upon customers’ future consumption, which is inherently variable at customers’ discretion and can extend beyond the original contract term in cases where customers are permitted to roll over unused capacity to future periods, generally on the purchase of additional capacity at renewal.

Remaining performance obligations; discretionary consumption and capacity rollover · Dépôt 04/09/2026

Some customers have negotiated an option to purchase additional capacity at a stated discount.

Revenue recognition; negotiated additional-capacity discounts · Dépôt 20/03/2026

Our current competitors include: •large, well-established, public cloud providers that generally compete in all of our markets, including AWS, Azure, and GCP;

Competition; explicitly named public cloud competitors · Dépôt 20/03/2026

Our platform enables governed and secure sharing of live data within an organization and externally across customers and partners, generally without copying or moving the underlying data.

Business; governed live data sharing across customers and partners · Dépôt 20/03/2026

The more customers adopt our platform, the more data can be exchanged with other Snowflake customers, partners, data providers, and data consumers, enhancing the value of our platform for all users.

Business; management's proposed network-effect mechanism · Dépôt 20/03/2026

The AI Data Cloud includes access to the Snowflake Marketplace, through which customers can access or acquire third-party data sets, data applications, and other data products.

Business; Snowflake Marketplace offerings · Dépôt 20/03/2026

Our product gross margin was 71% for each of the three and six months ended July 31, 2026, compared to 72% for each of the three and six months ended July 31, 2025, primarily due to costs attributable to newly launched product capabilities and features that have not yet reached economies of scale, partially offset by higher discounts for our purchases of third-party cloud infrastructure.

MD&A; realized product gross margin and infrastructure discounts · Dépôt 04/09/2026

In addition, our platform currently operates on public cloud infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure (Azure), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and our costs and gross margins are significantly influenced by the prices we are able to negotiate with these public cloud providers, which in certain cases are also our competitors.

Risk factors; reliance on cloud providers that also compete · Dépôt 20/03/2026

For those customers who do not have a capacity arrangement, the Company’s on-demand arrangements generally have a monthly stated contract term and can be terminated at any time by either the customer or the Company.

Revenue recognition; termination rights under on-demand arrangements · Dépôt 20/03/2026

GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliation (in millions) Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2026 2025 Free cash flow: GAAP net cash provided by operating activities $ 1,221.9 $ 959.8 Less: purchases of property and equipment (101.6) (46.3) Less: capitalized software development costs — (29.4) Non-GAAP free cash flow $ 1,120.3 $ 884.1 GAAP net cash provided by investing activities $ 312.2 $ 190.6 GAAP net cash used in financing activities $ (1,385.4) $ (226.5) A-1

Appendix A; fiscal 2026 operating cash flow and free cash flow reconciliation · Dépôt 18/05/2026

During the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026, we repurchased 4.9 million shares of our outstanding common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $873.5 million, excluding transaction costs associated with the repurchases, at a weighted-average price of $177.37 per share.

Liquidity and capital resources; fiscal 2026 actual stock repurchases · Dépôt 20/03/2026

For example, our stock-based compensation, net of amounts capitalized, represented 34% of our revenue for fiscal 2026 and 41% for fiscal 2025, and we expect stock-based compensation to remain substantial even if we are successful in reducing it as a percentage of our revenue.

Risk factors; actual stock-based compensation relative to revenue · Dépôt 04/09/2026

common stockholders—basic and diluted 349,257 335,215 347,356 333,957 Non-GAAP net income per share attributable to Snowflake Inc.

GAAP earnings reconciliation; weighted-average shares outstanding · Dépôt 02/09/2026

During the six months ended July 31, 2026, we repurchased 1.7 million shares of our outstanding common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $300.0 million, excluding transaction costs associated with the repurchases, at a weighted-average price of $178.95 per share.

Liquidity and capital resources; six-month actual stock repurchases · Dépôt 04/09/2026

Based on the weighted final achievement of the performance metrics, our Compensation Committee determined that the attainment of the PRSU awards for Fiscal Year 2026 was approximately 102.9% of the target number of shares for each of our named executive officers who received a PRSU award.

Executive compensation; actual fiscal 2026 PRSU attainment · Dépôt 18/05/2026

The number of shares subject to the PRSU awards that became eligible to vest based on the achievement of the performance metrics (i.e., achieved PRSU awards) will vest over four years as follows: 25% of these PRSUs vested on March 8, 2026 and 6.25% of these PRSUs vest each quarter thereafter, subject to the named executive officer's continuous service through each applicable vesting date.

Executive compensation; achieved awards and service vesting schedule · Dépôt 18/05/2026

At our 2025 Annual Meeting, we received support from approximately 30% of the votes cast for our Say-on-Pay vote.

Executive compensation; 2025 say-on-pay voting support · Dépôt 18/05/2026

To address stockholder feedback regarding performance periods and vesting duration for our long-term equity incentive awards, our Compensation Committee approved a redesigned PRSU program for our executive leadership team for Fiscal Year 2027 (FY2027 PRSUs), including our named executive officers, which is summarized as follows:

Executive compensation; committee approval of fiscal 2027 PRSU redesign · Dépôt 18/05/2026

In addition, 100% of the achieved FY2027 PRSUs, if any, will vest after a three-year cliff on March 15, 2029.

Executive compensation; fiscal 2027 awards' prospective cliff vesting date · Dépôt 18/05/2026

As of July 31, 2026, the performance targets for 0.1 million of the Fiscal 2027 Leadership PRSUs were not yet set by the compensation committee of the Company’s board of directors and therefore were not considered granted for accounting purposes under Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 718, Compensation—Stock Compensation.

Equity incentive plans; performance targets not yet set as of July 31, 2026 · Dépôt 04/09/2026

Proceeds from exercise of stock options 67,845 28,186 74,424 34,446 Proceeds from issuance of common stock under employee stock purchase plan — — 66,987 53,193 Taxes paid related to net share settlement of equity awards (184,896) (161,999) (327,742) (294,497) Repurchases of common stock — — (300,003) (490,638) Payments of deferred purchase consideration for business combinations — (226) (2,250) (600) Net cash used in financing activities (117,051) (134,039) (488,584) (698,096) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash (1,860) (175) (4,684) 12,222 Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash (2,132) (17,633) (108,620) Non-GAAP total operating expenses $ 872,861 57% $ 707,715 62% $ 1,705,159 58% $ 1,368,181 63% Operating income (loss): GAAP operating loss $ (262,967) (17%) $ (340,276) (30%) $ (589,121) (20%) $ (787,533) (36%) Adjustments: Stock-based compensation-related charges(3) 456,363 436,182 890,020 844,904 Amortization of acquired intangibles 42,230 27,807 82,788 51,892 Expenses associated with acquisitions and strategic investments 1,378 2,191 1,440 2,569 Restructuring recoveries, net(1) (2) (464) (22) (1,222) Asset impairment related to office facility exits, net of sublease income(2) (17) 2,132 17,633 108,620 Non-GAAP operating income $ 236,985 15% $ 127,572 11% $ 402,738 14% $ 219,230 10% Operating margin: GAAP operating margin (17%) (30%) (20%) (36%) Adjustments: Stock-based compensation-related charges as a % of revenue 29% 39% 30% 39% Amortization of acquired intangibles as a % of revenue 3% 2% 3% 2% Expenses associated with acquisitions and strategic investments as a % of revenue —% —% —% —% Restructuring recoveries, net as a % of revenue —% —% —% —% Asset impairment related to office facility exits, net of sublease income as a % of revenue —% —% 1% 5% Non-GAAP operating margin 15% 11% 14% 10% Net income (loss): GAAP net loss $ (191,720) (12%) $ (297,930) (26%) $ (487,291) (17%) $ (727,882) (33%) Adjustments: Stock-based compensation-related charges(3) 456,363 436,182 890,020 844,904 Amortization of acquired intangibles 42,230 27,807 82,788 51,892 Asset impairment related to office facility exits, net of sublease income(2) (17) 2,132 17,633 108,620 Non-GAAP operating income $ 236,985 15% $ 127,572 11% $ 402,738 14% $ 219,230 10% Operating margin: GAAP operating margin (17%) (30%) (20%) (36%) Adjustments: Stock-based compensation-related charges as a % of revenue 29% 39% 30% 39% Amortization of acquired intangibles as a % of revenue 3% 2% 3% 2%

Cash flows and GAAP reconciliation; equity settlement outflows and operating losses · Dépôt 02/09/2026

(2)Because we did not attain 100% of the product revenue target for the third and fourth quarters of Fiscal Year 2026, attainment of the applicable gate metrics for funding acceleration above 100% was not applicable.

Executive compensation; fiscal 2026 third- and fourth-quarter revenue target misses · Dépôt 18/05/2026

On August 31, 2026, the Company’s board of directors (Board), upon the recommendation of the nominating and governance committee of the Board, approved and adopted an amendment and restatement of the Company’s bylaws (Amended and Restated Bylaws), effective as of such date, to:

Other information; August 31, 2026 bylaw adoption · Dépôt 04/09/2026

•implement a majority vote standard for uncontested director elections under which a director nominee will be elected to the Board only if the votes cast “for” such nominee’s election exceed the votes cast “against” such nominee’s election, with “abstentions” and “broker non-votes” not counted as votes cast,” with the plurality vote standard continuing to apply to contested elections (as defined in the Amended and Restated Bylaws);

Other information; adopted majority voting standard · Dépôt 04/09/2026

The Observe Acquisition was approved by a special committee of our Board (Special Committee) consisting solely of independent and disinterested directors not affiliated with Observe, pursuant to authority delegated to it by our Board, as well as our Audit Committee.

Related-person transactions; Observe acquisition committee approval · Dépôt 18/05/2026

The Special Committee also obtained a fairness opinion regarding the Observe Acquisition from a third-party financial advisor engaged by the committee.

Related-person transactions; Observe acquisition fairness opinion · Dépôt 18/05/2026

•establish that our board of directors is divided into three classes, with each class serving three-year staggered terms;

Governance risk factors; classified board with staggered terms · Dépôt 20/03/2026

We then calculate our net revenue retention rate as the quotient obtained by dividing our product revenue from this cohort in the second year of the measurement period by our product revenue from this cohort in the first year of the measurement period.

Key business metrics; cohort-based net revenue retention calculation · Dépôt 04/09/2026

Any customer in the cohort that did not use our platform in the second year remains in the calculation and contributes zero product revenue in the second year.

Key business metrics; non-consuming customers remain in retention calculation · Dépôt 04/09/2026

The results of operations of Observe from the date of acquisition, which were not material, have been included in the Company’s condensed consolidated statements of operations for the three and six months ended July 31, 2026.

Business combinations; Observe's included operating results were not material · Dépôt 04/09/2026

Cash outflows for employee payroll tax items related to the net share settlement of equity awards are included in cash flow for financing activities and, as a result, do not have an effect on the calculation of free cash flow.

Free cash flow definition; equity settlement tax outflows classified as financing · Dépôt 18/05/2026

The preliminary purchase consideration was approximately $596.2 million, which was comprised primarily of $286.2 million in cash and approximately 1.5 million shares of our common stock valued at $285.3 million as of the acquisition date.

Business combinations; preliminary Observe acquisition consideration · Dépôt 20/03/2026

Future minimum payments under the Company’s non-cancelable purchase commitments with a remaining term in excess of one year as of January 31, 2026 are presented in the table below (in thousands): Fiscal Year Ending January 31, 656,283 796,737 660,845 50,000 2031 and thereafter 518,020 2,681,885 (1)Includes $530.5 million of remaining non-cancelable contractual commitments as of January 31, 2026 related to one of the Company’s third-party cloud infrastructure agreements, under which the Company committed to spend an aggregate of at least $1.0 billion between June 2023 and May 2028 with no minimum purchase commitment during any year.

Commitments and contingencies; non-cancelable purchase commitments · Dépôt 20/03/2026

These options generally do not provide a material right as they are priced at the Company’s SSP, as described below, as the stated discounts are not incremental to the range of discounts typically given.

Revenue recognition; negotiated discounts within customary discount ranges · Dépôt 20/03/2026

Although we rely on intellectual property rights, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, as well as contractual protections to establish and protect our proprietary rights, we believe that factors such as the technological and creative skills of our personnel, creation of new services, features and functionality, and frequent enhancements to our platform are more essential to establishing and maintaining our technology leadership position.

Intellectual property; management's dependence on continuing innovation · Dépôt 20/03/2026

Historique des publications

Historique des publications
VersionMis à jourAvantage concurrentiel
923/10/2026uncertain
822/10/2026uncertain
719/10/2026uncertain
619/10/2026uncertain
519/10/2026uncertain
418/10/2026uncertain
318/10/2026uncertain
218/10/2026uncertain
118/10/2026Indisponible

Sources

Méthode et limites de l’analyse · Comprendre ce concept