Snowflake and OpenAI have announced a multi-year partnership valued at $200 million to bring advanced AI capabilities directly into Snowflake’s data platform.
This collaboration supports the development and use of AI agents and applications that work with proprietary enterprise data while following established governance and security requirements.
As part of the agreement, OpenAI models are available natively within Snowflake Cortex AI across all major cloud providers. Snowflake customers, including Canva and WHOOP, are already using these capabilities to support day-to-day business operations.
The partnership also includes coordinated product development and joint commercial efforts focused on expanding the use of AI functionality within existing data workflows.
Why It Matters: Enterprise AI adoption depends on how well advanced models fit into the data systems organizations already trust. When AI operates inside these environments, existing controls stay in place and insights can be used directly in operational work, which supports continued use beyond early experimentation.
- Direct Integration of OpenAI Models With Enterprise Data: OpenAI models, including GPT-5.2, are available directly inside Snowflake Cortex AI and Snowflake Intelligence. This allows organizations to work with structured and unstructured data using natural language, while keeping data inside Snowflake’s governed environment. Running the models within the platform reduces duplication and limits exposure from external processing, so AI outputs are generated from the same data already used for analytics and operations.
- Development of AI Agents for Business Operations: Snowflake and OpenAI support the creation of AI agents that operate within existing enterprise workflows. These agents can use enterprise data to answer questions and take actions across connected systems using OpenAI tools integrated with Snowflake. Operating directly on enterprise data allows the agents to support everyday work, such as research and reporting without, requiring additional data pipelines or separate systems.
- Embedded Governance and Reliability Controls: Snowflake includes governance features through Snowflake Horizon along with responsible AI controls that manage how data is accessed and used by AI-powered applications. Built-in disaster recovery and a 99.99% uptime service-level agreement help keep AI-enabled operations available and reliable. These features make it easier to apply existing compliance and operational standards to AI workloads without adding new governance systems.
- Expanded Support for Multimodal Data Analysis: Snowflake Cortex AI Functions allow OpenAI models to work with tabular data as well as text and media content using SQL. This makes it possible to analyze documents and structured records in the same environment already used for analytics and reporting. Supporting different data formats within one platform allows teams to generate insights from more enterprise information while continuing to use familiar tools.
- Operational Adoption Across Both Organizations: The collaboration also extends into everyday operations at each company. OpenAI uses Snowflake to support work related to model testing and evaluation, while Snowflake uses ChatGPT Enterprise internally to help employees complete tasks and access information. This internal use provides ongoing feedback that helps guide how the joint capabilities are built and maintained for enterprise customers.
Snowflake partners with OpenAI in $200 million AI deal – Reuters
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