Snowflake surges 6% on earnings beat as company expands AI push

Snowflake shares rose 4.5% Thursday after the data analytics software company posted stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results. The company reported adjusted earnings of 30 cents per share on $987 million in revenue, surpassing the 17 cents per share and $956 million in sales expected by analysts polled by LSEG. That reflected 27% year-over-year revenue growth. CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy called Snowflake the "essential enterprise data and AI company on the planet right now" during an interview with CNBC's Jon Fortt on Wednesday. Like its peers, Snowflake has pushed to offer new artificial intelligence tools to its customers as the race for advanced large language models and AI capabilities accelerates. It announced an expanded partnership with Microsoft Azure to offer access to OpenAI models on Wednesday. Last quarter, the company announced a multiyear partnership with Anthropic and said it had agreed to buy startup Datavolo for an undisclosed sum. '"It's a step up," Ramaswamy said ... Read full article.