What Snowflake’s OpenAI deal signals about the enterprise AI landscape
Snowflake’s OpenAI partnership reflects a growing shift toward multi-model AI strategies in the enterprise tech stack
The enterprise AI race is gaining pace, and Snowflake just placed another hefty bet.
The cloud data platform has signed a US$200 million multi-year deal with OpenAI, designed to integrate OpenAI’s models directly into Snowflake’s data infrastructure and product suite.
This article explores why Snowflake is partnering with multiple top-tier AI labs, what the move means for B2B enterprise marketers, and how it fits into a broader pattern of multi-model AI strategies now emerging across the enterprise tech stack.
Short on time?
Here’s a table of contents for quick access:
- Why Snowflake signed a US$200M deal with OpenAI
- How Snowflake is navigating a multi-model AI strategy
- What marketers should know
Patrecia Meliana
Why Snowflake signed a US$200M deal with OpenAI
Snowflake’s latest partnership with OpenAI builds on its ambition to become the enterprise layer for AI deployment. The deal brings GPT-5.2 and other OpenAI models directly into Snowflake’s data platform, making them accessible across all three major clouds.
Customers will be able to use these models through Snowflake’s tools like Cortex AI and Snowflake Intelligence to generate insights, build natural-language agents, and enable reasoning on top of their own enterprise data—without writing code.
Snowflake employees will also gain access to ChatGPT Enterprise to enhance internal decision-making and productivity.
OpenAI joins a growing list of Snowflake’s AI partners, including Anthropic, Google, and Meta. Notably, this partnership follows Snowflake’s earlier US$200 million deal with Anthropic in December 2025.
How Snowflake is navigating a multi-model AI strategy
Rather than choosing a single AI partner, Snowflake is doubling down on a model-agnostic approach. According to Baris Gultekin, Snowflake’s Vice President of AI, this strategy is rooted in enterprise demand for flexibility and task-specific optimization.
“OpenAI is an important partner, and it is one of several frontier model providers available on Snowflake today,” he told TechCrunch. That list includes Anthropic’s Claude, Meta’s Llama, and Google’s Gemini.
This reflects a broader trend across the enterprise space. Other companies like ServiceNow have also struck simultaneous partnerships with both OpenAI and Anthropic, reinforcing the notion that enterprises don’t want to be locked into a single model provider.
The rationale: Different large language models (LLMs) excel at different tasks. Some offer stronger reasoning, others better multimodal capabilities. And enterprise users often prefer to experiment—just like consumers switch between apps for different needs.
Even the employees at these companies are already using multiple models depending on the use case, regardless of formal partnerships.
What marketers should know
For marketing and strategy teams, this multi-model trend has a few key implications:
- AI infrastructure matters more than the model name
With Snowflake acting as a neutral AI deployment layer, marketers should prioritize integrating their customer and campaign data into platforms that allow experimentation with different models.
- Expect more task-specific AI agents
With Snowflake Cortex AI and tools like AgentKit, marketers will likely see a rise in custom agents tailored to segmentation, content generation, or competitive analysis—grounded in internal data.
- Get used to flexibility and iteration
Like A/B testing creatives, marketers can now test multiple LLMs to see which one performs best for different workflows—from summarizing customer feedback to personalizing outbound.
- Don't get distracted by "winner-takes-all" narratives
The OpenAI–Anthropic–Google–Meta dynamic will continue to evolve, but for marketers, the best approach is pragmatic: use what delivers ROI, not what’s trending.
As AI capabilities advance and Snowflake expands its AI-native offerings, marketing teams will be under pressure to define their AI use cases more clearly—choosing the right tools and models for the job.
Snowflake’s OpenAI deal reinforces a key signal in enterprise AI: model plurality is here to stay. Instead of waiting for a single model to “win,” organizations are integrating multiple AI tools that align with their data and governance standards.
For marketers, the message is clear. Don’t just watch the AI race—structure your stack to benefit from it.
