WritingSnowflake (Arctic)Snowflake (Arctic)published Sep 8, 2026seen 4d

Snowflake Ventures: Investing in Enterprise AI Infrastructure

Open original ↗

Captured source

source ↗
published Sep 8, 2026seen 4dcaptured 4dhttp 200method plain

Snowflake Ventures: Investing in Enterprise AI Infrastructure

Skip to content

Blog / At Snowflake / Snowflake Ventures: Investing in the Next Phase of Enterprise AI

Sep 8, 2026 / 4 min read At Snowflake Copy post link Open in Claude Open in ChatGPT

Snowflake Ventures: Investing in the Next Phase of Enterprise AI

Harsha Kapre

Most enterprise AI programs don't fail because of the model. They fail because of the infrastructure beneath it: the governance gaps, security blind spots and workflow friction that keep AI locked in pilot mode instead of delivering production-scale business value.

But accessing the agentic enterprise requires far more than just better models. AI agents need a trusted foundation: a single source of enterprise truth, built-in security capabilities, identity-aware access controls and policy guardrails that allow them to operate reliably across business workflows. Without that foundation, even the most capable models cannot safely take action.

At Snowflake, we've long believed there is no AI strategy without a governed data strategy. As enterprises move beyond experimentation and toward deploying AI agents in production, a new infrastructure layer is emerging between foundation models and business applications. This layer is becoming one of the most important investment opportunities in enterprise AI, enabling organizations to operationalize AI securely, govern it consistently and integrate it into the workflows where business value is created.

That's why we're excited to highlight Dust and Gray Swan , two Snowflake Ventures portfolio companies helping define this next phase of enterprise AI.

Each company addresses different challenges, from AI security and governance to enterprise agent platforms and model infrastructure. Together, they represent the foundational capabilities organizations need to deploy production-grade, agentic AI with the trust, flexibility and governance controls that enterprises require.

From AI experimentation to enterprise deployment

The first wave of AI adoption was defined by experimentation. Organizations tested new models, explored use cases and evaluated potential business impact. Now, enterprises are building AI-powered products, deploying agents and embedding intelligence directly into business processes. Success increasingly depends not only on model quality but on the surrounding systems that make AI reliable, secure and useful in production.

There are three capabilities that are becoming foundational:

Flexible access to the best models for a given task

Security and governance controls for AI systems operating at scale

AI-native workflows that enable humans and agents to work together effectively

Dust and Gray Swan are both helping define these categories.

Bringing AI into everyday work with Dust

Dust is building organizational AI for better collaboration across teams of people and agents. With traction across GTM and operations teams at AI-native startups and established enterprises alike, Dust gives teams a shared foundation of company knowledge, search and Model Context Protocols (MCPs), on top of which they can orchestrate complex, cross-functional work using any model and reusable, governable agents and skills.

By making AI more collaborative, flexible and governable, Dust helps companies move beyond isolated pilots and toward broader organizational adoption. We’re particularly excited about the growing integration between Snowflake and Dust, helping customers build and scale Cortex Agents and Dust agents grounded in trusted enterprise data.

Building trust in AI with Gray Swan

Gray Swan is building the runtime security and protection layer required for this next generation of AI applications. Its platform helps organizations identify vulnerabilities, strengthen defenses and deploy AI with greater confidence.

As enterprise AI adoption accelerates, trust, governance and security have become foundational requirements for every organization seeking to scale AI responsibly.

Scaling the agentic enterprise

At Snowflake Ventures, we invest in companies that empower organizations to unlock more value from their enterprise data and accelerate their AI transformation journey. What excites us about Gray Swan and Dust is not only their individual product execution but how they collectively reflect where enterprise software is headed.

The future of enterprise AI requires more than raw model power. It demands a single source of enterprise truth, secure and governed deployment runtime, and seamless integration into the everyday workflows where decisions get made and work gets done.

We’re thrilled to collaborate with the teams at Gray Swan and Dust as they help build the trusted infrastructure powering the agentic enterprise.

Interested in building with Snowflake? Explore how the Snowflake AI Data Cloud helps organizations develop, deploy and scale AI applications with trusted enterprise data, and register here to join our Snowflake for Startups ecosystem.

Learn more about the author

Harsha Kapre Head of Snowflake Ventures

Share this post

More blog posts

Summit Encore

Subscribe to our blog newsletter Get the best, coolest and latest delivered to your inbox each week

By submitting this form, I understand Snowflake will process my personal information in accordance with their Privacy Notice.

Where Data Does More

Start for free

Watch a demo

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

Stay up to date on Snowflake’s latest products, expert insights and resources—right in your inbox!

Product

Platform

Snowflake CoWork

Data Engineering

Analytics

AI

Applications & Collaboration

Pricing

Support

Support

Priority Support

Status

Industries

Advertising, Media & Entertainment

Financial Services

Healthcare & Life Sciences

Manufacturing

Public Sector

Retail & Consumer Goods

Telecom

Technology

Company

About Snowflake

Leadership & Board

Careers

Investor Relations

Trust Center

Brand Guidelines

Contact

Newsroom

Environmental, Social & Governance

Snowflake Ventures

End Data Disparity

Snowflake Summit 26

Learn

Resource Library

Live Demos

Fundamentals

Training

Certifications

Snowflake University

Developer Guides

Documentation

Data Governance

© 2026 Snowflake Inc. All Rights Reserved

Site Terms

Communication Preferences

Cookie Settings

Do Not Share My Personal Information

Legal

Notability

notability 4.0/10

Corporate investment announcement, not a technical release.