Snowflake Inks $200M Collaboration Alliance To Bring OpenAI Models To Cortex AI Services

OpenAI models will now be one of the primary model capabilities in the Snowflake Data Cloud platform, making it easier to use those models combined with an organization’s proprietary data to develop context-aware Ai applications and agents.

Data and AI cloud giant Snowflake and AI model developer OpenAI have established a strategic alliance through which they will jointly deliver advanced AI model capabilities to enterprise customers.

Under the multi-year collaboration deal, which the companies valued at $200 million, OpenAI models will be natively available to Snowflake’s 12,600 global customers within the Snowflake Cortex AI service across all three major cloud platforms.

Through the partnership, announced Monday, OpenAI is now one of the primary model capabilities in the Snowflake platform. That, according to the companies, will allow businesses and organizations to leverage OpenAI models in Snowflake to deploy context-aware AI applications and agents that leverage their proprietary data.

OpenAI models such as GPT-5.2 will also be available within Snowflake Intelligence, the data cloud company’s own natural language-based agentic AI platform that’s built into the company’s data cloud.

The partnership also includes co-innovation and joint go-to-market initiatives through which Snowflake and OpenAI will develop and deploy customized AI solutions that deliver tangible ROI for joint enterprise customers.

The alliance, the companies said, will accelerate the adoption of agentic AI by global enterprises through their improved ability to deploy AI applications and agents at scale that deliver consistent, trusted outcomes.

“By bringing OpenAI models to enterprise data, Snowflake enables organizations to build and deploy AI on top of their most valuable asset using the secure, governed platform they already trust,” said Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy, in. a statement.

“Customers can now harness all their enterprise knowledge in Snowflake together with the world-class intelligence of OpenAI models, enabling them to build AI agents that are powerful, responsible, and trustworthy. Together, we’re setting a new standard for AI innovation, helping businesses transform with confidence, while maintaining strong security and compliance standards," Ramaswamy said.

Snowflake struck a similar deal with AI research and development company Anthropic—also valued at $200 million—in December. Through that alliance Anthropic’s Claude AI models are also available on the Snowflake platform.

Earlier Collaboration

The Snowflake-OpenAI partnership builds on the two companies’ earlier collaboration that includes OpenAI’s use of the Snowflake platform for experiment tracking, analytics and testing. Snowflake employees, meanwhile, leverage OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise internally for a range of tasks including decision making, managing workflows and cross-functional collaboration.

“Snowflake is a trusted platform that sits at the center of how enterprises manage and activate their most critical data,” said Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI, also in the statement. “This partnership brings our advanced models directly into that environment, making it easier to deploy AI agents and apps, so businesses can close the gap between what AI is capable of and the value they can create today.”

Snowflake and OpenAI said their expanded joint development work will result in new features that leverage the OpenAI Apps SDK, AgentKit and APIs that support shared enterprise workflows. The partnership, according to the companies, will better enable enterprises to build state-of-the-art AI agents that are powered by Cortex AI and can “reason over governed data and take action across tools and apps.”

The Snowflake-OpenAI collaboration also provides the ability to use Cortex AI Functions to tap into OpenAI models to analyze data of all types, including unstructured text, images and audio, using SQL.

As part of the announcement, Snowflake and OpenAI cited graphic design platform company Canva and fitness wearable device maker WHOOP as examples of customers who stand to benefit from the new partnership.

“As we scale our visual AI offering on Canva, both OpenAI and Snowflake have played key roles in how we rapidly empower our users with new creative tools,” said Helen Crossley, Canva head of data science, in a statement. “As our platform continues to scale, Snowflake has been foundational to how we manage and activate data, and we’re excited to explore how leveraging OpenAI models in Snowflake Cortex AI can help us extend that foundation. The ability to bridge advanced AI models with our enterprise data allows us to move quickly and test new ideas, without compromising on security or performance.”

WHOOP already uses Snowflake Intelligence to develop AI agents for data analysis and decision-making tasks, the Snowflake-OpenAI announcement said, quoting Matt Luizzi, WHOOP’s senior director of business analytics. “With OpenAI’s models available directly within Snowflake Cortex AI, we can further enhance those agents with advanced reasoning and analysis, all while maintaining strong security and governance,” he said.