Snowflake Jumps 30% on $6 Billion AWS Deal and Stronger Sales Outlook

Snowflake shares soared nearly 30% in extended trading on Wednesday after the cloud data company announced a $6 billion multiyear agreement with Amazon Web Services and posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The stock, which had been down 20% for 2026 through Wednesday's close, looked set to climb back into positive territory for the year. According to Yahoo Finance, the shares jumped as much as 35% in after-hours trading.

The dual announcement of a major cloud commitment and upbeat financial guidance gave investors a clear signal that Snowflake's enterprise AI strategy is gaining traction. Bloomberg reports that the software maker gave a stronger-than-expected annual outlook alongside the AWS deal. The market response was immediate and substantial, erasing much of the stock's year-to-date losses in a single session.

The timing mattered. Snowflake dropped this news just days ahead of its flagship Summit conference, creating maximum visibility for the partnership and financial results.

The five-year agreement commits Snowflake to spend $6 billion on AWS services, including AI offerings and Graviton chips. TechCrunch notes this is an enormous deal by any measure, pointing out that Snowflake has sold $7 billion in total revenue across its entire company history, making this AWS commitment nearly equivalent to its cumulative sales. Approximately 84% of Snowflake's customers already run their deployments on AWS, and the two companies count over 6,000 joint customers including Goldman Sachs and other Fortune 500 enterprises.

The deal structure reveals how cloud vendors are locking in enterprise commitments through AI infrastructure partnerships. Snowflake isn't just buying compute, it's securing preferred access to AWS's AI chip roadmap including Graviton processors. This deepens a relationship that has always been central to Snowflake's architecture, even as the company expanded to Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Snowflake reported first quarter revenue of $1.39 billion, up 33% year-over-year and ahead of the $1.32 billion analyst estimate. The company also raised its annual product revenue forecast, signaling confidence in sustained growth momentum. Reuters reports that the improved outlook reflects growing enterprise AI adoption as companies ramp up their data infrastructure investments.

The financial beat comes at a critical moment for Snowflake, which has faced investor pressure around growth deceleration and competitive threats. The 33% growth rate, while slower than the company's historic triple-digit pace, exceeded Wall Street's tempered expectations. The raised full-year guidance suggests management sees durable demand rather than one-time AI spending spikes.

TechCrunch's analysis highlights a significant competitive angle, the AWS agreement puts Nvidia "on notice." By committing to AWS's Graviton chips and AI infrastructure, Snowflake is diversifying its compute dependencies and aligning with Amazon's custom silicon strategy. This reflects a broader industry shift as cloud customers seek alternatives to Nvidia's dominant GPU offerings.

The chip choice carries strategic weight. Graviton processors offer cost advantages for certain AI workloads, and AWS has invested heavily in building out its own chip ecosystem to reduce reliance on external suppliers. For Snowflake, this creates negotiating leverage and potentially lower infrastructure costs at scale. The deal also signals that AWS's AI chip investments are winning major enterprise commitments, not just experimental deployments.

The deepened AWS partnership reinforces Snowflake's position as a neutral data platform while simultaneously tying it more closely to Amazon's ecosystem. This creates tension with Snowflake's multi-cloud positioning, even as 84% of customers were already AWS-based. CNBC previously noted that Snowflake's complicated ties to Amazon present long-term competitive dynamics, since Amazon also offers competing data and analytics services.

The Natoma acquisition, announced alongside the earnings and AWS deal, adds another layer. Snowflake is buying capabilities while simultaneously committing billions to its largest infrastructure partner. The combined moves suggest a strategy to own more of the data stack while securing favorable infrastructure economics. Competitors including Databricks, Google BigQuery, and Microsoft's Fabric will face a Snowflake with deeper AWS integration and stronger financial momentum.

The Summit conference, starting days after these announcements, will test whether Snowflake can convert financial momentum into sustained product narrative. Investors will watch for customer metrics around AI workload adoption and guidance on how quickly the Natoma integration delivers revenue. The $6 billion AWS commitment also creates execution risk, Snowflake must generate sufficient returns on that infrastructure spend to justify the investment.

For AWS, the deal validates its AI chip strategy and secures a marquee customer commitment at a time when cloud growth has decelerated. The partnership structure, with joint go-to-market investment and industry solution alignment, suggests both companies expect significant expansion in their shared customer base. Whether this translates to sustained outperformance depends on whether enterprise AI adoption continues accelerating or faces the budget pressures that have hit other tech spending categories.