Three insights you may have missed from theCUBE’s coverage of Snowflake Summit 2026
If the first wave of enterprise AI was about compute and foundation models, the next is shaping up to be about the software and data infrastructure needed to make those models useful in real businesses.
The first AI winners sold compute: graphics processing units, servers, networks and cloud capacity — the “picks and shovels” of AI. But as enterprise AI moves from experimentation to deployment, a new layer of value is emerging in the software stack. Snowflake Inc. is positioning itself within that layer by focusing on the tools enterprises need to connect proprietary data to advanced AI models and manage how those systems operate. That’s where Bob O’Donnell, founder and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research LLC, sees Snowflake’s opening.
“There’s got to be the data connection to those models,” he said. “If I can start to be the connector piece between that data and these frontier models … that opens up a lot of interesting opportunities for the software part of the picks and shovels.”
O’Donnell, who was joined by Sanjeev Mohan, founder and owner of SanjMo, talked with theCUBE’s Dave Vellante at Snowflake Summit 2026, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. During the event, Vellante and Rebecca Knight spoke with Snowflake’s leaders, customers and partners about the characteristics and capabilities required to support next-era enterprise AI. (* Disclosure below.)
