Image: Tim Mossholder
Is the season changing for Snowflake?

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Snowflake helped reinvent the data warehouse for the cloud. And its success paved the way for huge funding rounds for Dremio, Cockroach Labs, Starburst and even key rival Databricks. But the company has struggled to maintain the stock market momentum from its historic IPO, with the stock now down roughly 38% from its December high as of Friday's market close.
It's difficult to say exactly what investors are concerned about, but it doesn't appear to be CEO Frank Slootman's comments on Thursday about diversity taking a second seat to merit. Revenue was up 110% in the most recent quarter to $228.9 million.
But one thing is clear: The competitive environment is becoming much harsher.
Recent announcements from rivals Dremio and Databricks underscored the divide between where Snowflake and other companies in the industry are headed
That is unlikely to happen, given how prevalent the technology is and how devoted some Snowflake users are. The company claims a net retention rate of 168%, much higher than the industry average.
But the move to more interoperability is a big industry shift that can't be ignored.
Still, there are signs that Snowflake at least recognizes the threats posed by Databricks, Dremio and others.
None of this is to say Snowflake is doomed. Even its closest competitors will admit the company has an outstanding product — it just might not be as game-changing as Slootman and other leaders may be touting to the marketplace.
What's happening now with the stock is probably more a leveling out of the insane investor interest from December based on the pandemic-fueled surge of interest in cloud companies, and less a direct reflection of any major struggles in Snowflake's business.
But as users push for open ecosystems that give them the flexibility to run their data on whatever engine they want, Snowflake will have to effectively straddle the boundary it has created between open and closed architectures.
One thing is certain: Rivals are charging hard.
— Joe Williams
Recently, Micron announced new memory and storage innovations across its portfolio based on its industry-leading 176-layer NAND and 1α (1-alpha) DRAM technology. But what does "1α" mean, and just how amazing is it?
Benioff's blind side: In a recent Fortune profile, the Salesforce CEO claimed to be caught off guard by recent DEI complaints. But the reality is workers have raised concerns for years to the highest levels of the company.
June 7: Apple's WWDC kicks off and runs all week. Cloudflare Connect does the same.
June 8: Snowflake Summit kicks off. So does Microsoft's Azure + AI Conference. UiPath reports earnings, the first since its IPO.
June 9: Healthcare execs from IBM, Google and others speak at the WSJ's Tech Health conference.
Recently, Micron announced new memory and storage innovations across its portfolio based on its industry-leading 176-layer NAND and 1α (1-alpha) DRAM technology. But what does "1α" mean, and just how amazing is it?
Thanks for reading — see you Thursday!
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