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Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
9 Months Ended
Oct. 31, 2024
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Fiscal Year

The Company’s fiscal year ends on January 31. For example, references to fiscal 2025 refer to the fiscal year ending January 31, 2025.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP) and applicable rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding interim financial reporting. Accordingly, they do not include all disclosures normally required in annual consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. Therefore, these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024, which was filed with the SEC on March 26, 2024.

In management’s opinion, these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the annual financial statements and reflect all adjustments, which include only normal recurring adjustments necessary for the fair statement of the Company’s financial position as of October 31, 2024 and the results of operations for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2024 and 2023, and cash flows for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 and 2023. The condensed balance sheet as of January 31, 2024 was derived from the audited consolidated financial statements but does not include all disclosures required by GAAP. The results of operations for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2024 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full year or any other future interim or annual period.

Principles of Consolidation

The condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Snowflake Inc., its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and a majority-owned subsidiary in which the Company has a controlling financial interest. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation. The Company records noncontrolling interest in its condensed consolidated financial statements to recognize the minority ownership interest in its majority-owned subsidiary. Profits and losses of the majority-owned subsidiary are attributed to controlling and noncontrolling interests using the hypothetical liquidation at book value method.

Segment Information

The Company has a single operating and reportable segment. The Company’s chief operating decision maker is its Chief Executive Officer, who reviews financial information presented on a consolidated basis for purposes of making operating decisions, assessing financial performance, and allocating resources. For information regarding the Company’s revenue by geographic area, see Note 3, “Revenue, Accounts Receivable, Deferred Revenue, and Remaining Performance Obligations.”
The following table presents the Company’s long-lived assets, comprising property and equipment, net and operating lease right-of-use assets, by geographic area (in thousands):
October 31, 2024January 31, 2024
United States$436,258 $379,664 
Other(1)
122,835 119,928 
Total$559,093 $499,592 
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(1)No individual country outside of the United States accounted for more than 10% of the Company’s long-lived assets as of October 31, 2024 and January 31, 2024.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Such estimates include, but are not limited to, stand-alone selling prices (SSP) for each distinct performance obligation, internal-use software development costs, the expected period of benefit for deferred commissions, the fair value of intangible assets acquired in business combinations, the useful lives of long-lived assets, the carrying value of operating lease right-of-use assets, stock-based compensation, accounting for income taxes, and the fair value of investments in marketable and non-marketable securities.

The Company bases its estimates on historical experience and also on assumptions that management considers reasonable. These estimates are assessed on a regular basis; however, actual results could differ from these estimates.

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

The Company’s significant accounting policies are discussed in “Note 2 – Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024, which was filed with the SEC on March 26, 2024. During the nine months ended October 31, 2024, the Company (i) updated its revenue recognition accounting policy, as described below, due to the developments in the Company’s business in connection with a new product capability that became generally available to customers during the three months ended July 31, 2024, and (ii) added the convertible senior notes accounting policy with respect to the completion of the private offering of convertible senior notes during the three months ended October 31, 2024. Other than these updates, there have been no significant changes to the Company’s accounting policies.

Revenue Recognition

The Company accounts for revenue in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (ASC 606) for all periods presented.

The Company delivers its platform over the internet as a service. Customers choose to consume the platform under either capacity arrangements, in which customers commit to a certain amount of consumption at specified prices, or under on-demand arrangements, in which the Company charges for use of the platform monthly in arrears. Under capacity arrangements, from which a majority of revenue is derived, the Company typically bills its customers annually in advance of their consumption. Revenue from on-demand arrangements typically relates to customers with lower usage levels or overage consumption beyond a customer’s contracted usage amount under a capacity contract or following the expiration of a customer’s capacity contract. Revenue from on-demand arrangements represented approximately 2% of the Company’s revenue for each of the three and nine months ended October 31, 2024 and 2023. The Company recognizes revenue as customers consume compute, storage, and data transfer resources under either of these arrangements. In limited instances, customers pay an annual deployment fee to gain access to a dedicated instance of a virtual private deployment. Deployment fees are recognized ratably over the contract term.

Customers do not have the contractual right to take possession of the Company’s platform. Pricing for the platform includes embedded support services, data backup and disaster recovery services, as well as future updates, when and if available, offered during the contract term.
Customer contracts for capacity typically have a term of one to four years. To the extent customers enter into such contracts and either consume the platform in excess of their capacity commitments or continue to use the platform after expiration of the contract term, they are charged for their incremental consumption. In many cases, customer contracts permit customers to roll over any unused capacity to a subsequent order, generally on the purchase of additional capacity.

Customer contracts are generally non-cancelable during the contract term, although customers can terminate for breach if the Company materially fails to perform. For those customers who do not have a capacity arrangement, the Company’s on-demand arrangements generally have a monthly stated contract term and can be terminated at any time by either the customer or the Company.

For compute resources, consumption is based on the type of compute resource used and the duration of use or, for some features, the volume of data processed. For storage resources, consumption for a given customer is based on the average terabytes per month of all of such customer’s data stored in the platform. For data transfer resources, consumption is based on terabytes of data transferred, the public cloud provider used, and the region to and from which the transfer is executed.

The Company’s revenue also includes professional services and other revenue, which consists primarily of consulting, technical solution services, and training related to the platform. Professional services revenue is recognized over time based on input measures, including time and materials costs incurred relative to total costs, with consideration given to output measures, such as contract deliverables, when applicable. Other revenue consists primarily of fees from customer training delivered on-site or through publicly available classes.

The Company determines revenue recognition in accordance with ASC 606 through the following five steps:

1) Identify the contract with a customer. The Company considers the terms and conditions of the contracts and the Company’s customary business practices in identifying its contracts under ASC 606. The Company determines it has a contract with a customer when the contract has been approved by both parties, it can identify each party’s rights regarding the services to be transferred and the payment terms for the services, it has determined the customer to have the ability and intent to pay, and the contract has commercial substance. At contract inception, the Company evaluates whether two or more contracts should be combined and accounted for as a single contract and whether the combined or single contract includes more than one performance obligation. The Company applies judgment in determining the customer’s ability and intent to pay, which is based on a variety of factors, including the customer’s payment history or, in the case of a new customer, credit and financial information pertaining to the customer.

2) Identify the performance obligations in the contract. Performance obligations promised in a contract are identified based on the services that will be transferred to the customer that are both capable of being distinct, whereby the customer can benefit from the service either on its own or together with other resources that are readily available from third parties or from the Company, and are distinct in the context of the contract, whereby the transfer of the services is separately identifiable from other promises in the contract.

Prior to June 2024, the Company treated consumption of its platform for compute, storage, and data transfer resources as a single performance obligation because they were consumed by customers as a single, integrated offering. Each of compute, storage and data transfer worked together to drive consumption on the Company’s platform.

In June 2024, the Company made Iceberg tables generally available to its customers, enabling them to use the Snowflake platform for compute services without requiring storage. As a result, starting from June 2024, customers are allowed to select compute, storage, and data transfer resources separately, at their discretion. Consequently, the Company treats the consumption of its platform for compute, storage, and data transfer resources as separate and distinct performance obligations. This change did not have a material impact on the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements for any period presented.

The Company treats its virtual private deployments for customers, professional services, technical solution services, and training each as a separate and distinct performance obligation. Some customers have negotiated an option to purchase additional capacity at a stated discount. These options generally do not provide a material right as they are priced at the Company’s SSP, as described below, as the stated discounts are not incremental to the range of discounts typically given.
3) Determine the transaction price. The transaction price is determined based on the consideration the Company expects to receive in exchange for transferring services to the customer. Variable consideration is included in the transaction price if, in the Company’s judgment, it is probable that a significant future reversal of cumulative revenue recognized under the contract will not occur. Variable consideration is estimated based on expected value, primarily relying on the Company’s history. In certain situations, the Company may also use the most likely amount as the basis of its estimate. None of the Company’s contracts contain a significant financing component. Revenue is recognized net of any taxes collected from customers, which are subsequently remitted to governmental entities (e.g., sales and other indirect taxes).

4) Allocate the transaction price to performance obligations in the contract. If the contract contains a single performance obligation, the entire transaction price is allocated to the single performance obligation. Contracts that contain multiple performance obligations require an allocation of the transaction price to each performance obligation on a relative SSP basis. The determination of a relative SSP for each distinct performance obligation requires judgment. The Company determines SSP for performance obligations based on an observable standalone selling price when it is available, as well as other factors, including the overall pricing objectives, which take into consideration market conditions and customer-specific factors, including a review of internal discounting tables, the services being sold, the volume of capacity commitments, the estimated mix of compute, storage, and data transfer, and other factors. The observable standalone selling price is established based on the price at which products and services are sold separately. If an SSP is not observable through past transactions, the Company estimates it using available information including, but not limited to, market data and other observable inputs.

5) Recognize revenue when or as the Company satisfies a performance obligation. Revenue is recognized at the time the related performance obligation is satisfied by transferring the promised service to a customer. Revenue is recognized when control of the services is transferred to the customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration that the Company expects to receive in exchange for those services. The Company determined an output method for capacity arrangements to be the most appropriate measure of progress because it most faithfully represents when the value of the services is simultaneously received and consumed by the customer, and control is transferred. Virtual private deployment fees are recognized ratably over the term of the deployment as the deployment service represents a stand-ready performance obligation provided throughout the deployment term.

Convertible Senior Notes

The Company accounts for each series of its convertible senior notes as a liability in its entirety, measured at amortized cost. Debt issuance costs incurred in connection with the issuance of the Company’s convertible senior notes are reflected in the condensed consolidated balance sheets as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of the outstanding convertible senior notes. These costs are amortized using the effective interest rate method over the terms of the convertible senior notes and are included within interest expense on the condensed consolidated statements of operations.

In connection with the convertible senior notes offering, the Company entered into privately negotiated capped call transactions relating to each series of convertible senior notes with certain counterparties. The capped call transactions are generally expected to reduce the potential dilution to the Company’s common stock upon any conversion of the relevant series of convertible senior notes and/or offset any cash payments the Company is required to make in excess of the principal amount of converted notes of such series, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap. See Note 10, “Convertible Senior Notes,” for further details.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted

In November 2023, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2023-07, Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures, which requires disclosure, on an annual and interim basis, of significant segment expenses that are regularly provided to the chief operating decision maker and included within each reported measure of segment profit and loss, and an amount for other segment items by reportable segment and a description of its composition. This guidance also requires disclosures on the title and position of the chief operating decision maker and an explanation of how the chief operating decision maker uses the reported measures of segment profit or loss in assessing segment performance and deciding how to allocate resources, and interim disclosures of reportable segment’s profit or loss and assets. This guidance is effective for the Company for its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2024 and interim periods within its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2025 on a retrospective basis. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on its condensed consolidated financial statements and disclosures.
In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures, which requires annual disclosure on disaggregation of rate reconciliation categories and income taxes paid by jurisdiction. This guidance is effective for the Company for its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2025 on a prospective basis. Early adoption and retrospective application are permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on its condensed consolidated financial statements and disclosures.

In November 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-03, Income Statement—Reporting Comprehensive Income—Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (Subtopic 220-40), which requires disclosure, on an annual and interim basis, of specified information about certain costs and expenses in the notes to financial statements. This guidance is effective for the Company for its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2027 and interim periods within its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2028 on either a prospective or retrospective basis. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on its condensed consolidated financial statements and disclosures.