Sep 16, 2020 - Economy & Business

Snowflake is largest software IPO ever

Warren Buffett

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Getty Images photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Snowflake, a Silicon Valley cloud data warehousing company, on Tuesday night raised $3.4 billion in what is the largest software IPO ever.

Between the lines: Snowflake loses money, but got a big boost of confidence when Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway agreed to invest $500 million concurrent to the IPO.

Rocket ship: Snowflake raised venture capital in early 2018 at a $1.5 billion valuation, to help it compete in the red-hot business of helping companies move their legacy workloads into the cloud.

  • The IPO values Snowflake at over $44 billion, with indicative bids suggesting it could open at double its $120-per-share IPO price.
  • Update: Snowflake shares opened at $245 per share, and then began trading even higher.
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