Snowflake’s 2020 IPO was the largest U.S. technology initial public offering at the time.
Snowflake began trading publicly in September 2020 after pricing its IPO at $120 per share. The cloud-data company raised about $3.4 billion, making the offering the largest U.S. software IPO recorded up to that point. Its shares then surged on the first day of trading.
Snowflake provides cloud-based data storage, processing, and analytics through its data platform. It was founded in 2012 and built its business around allowing organizations to use data across major cloud infrastructures without relying on traditional on-premises warehouses.
The IPO became notable because Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway participated alongside Salesforce. Snowflake is not itself one of the permanently largest companies by market capitalization; its valuation has changed substantially with growth expectations and the broader technology market.