SAP SE and Snowflake have announced a new collaboration to integrate Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud with SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), aiming to provide organizations with seamless access to semantically rich data for advanced AI and machine learning solutions.
The partnership introduces “SAP Snowflake,” a solution extension designed for SAP BDC customers, which will enable Snowflake’s data and AI platform to leverage SAP’s deep expertise in mission-critical business processes and semantically rich data. This integration is set to facilitate the building of enterprise-grade intelligent applications and AI-powered innovation through a unified platform.
A core component of this collaboration is the enablement of zero-copy sharing between SAP Business Data Cloud and Snowflake. This feature is intended to help customers gain richer insights and accelerate their business transformation by allowing data and AI teams to work with semantically rich SAP data products in real time, all within a unified governance framework.
Christian Kleinerman, EVP of Product at Snowflake, stated, “By tightly integrating SAP and Snowflake, we’re making it simple for enterprises to connect their critical business data with its rich context in SAP with the power of seamless AI app and data agent development at scale in Snowflake. Enterprises can now innovate faster with Snowflake and SAP BDC and seamlessly share data between the platforms —zero-copy and fully governed.”
The SAP Snowflake offering extends the SAP Business Data Cloud’s open data ecosystem and business data fabric, providing customers with greater openness and choice. It enhances SAP BDC with Snowflake’s capabilities in AI, analytics, data engineering, Marketplace, and collaboration. Customers can utilize SAP BDC with SAP Snowflake as a cloud-scale compute and storage option to maximize the value of their data.
This collaboration will allow customers to build a trusted, AI-ready data foundation by harmonizing SAP and non-SAP data. It aims to unify data landscapes with an integrated business data fabric, enabling seamless zero-copy sharing, enriched modeling, and a complete, business-ready view of data in real time across all data engineering, analytics, and AI/machine learning workflows.
The companies assert that customers can accelerate AI business value with semantically rich data, simplifying AI governance, grounding AI in organizational knowledge, and building tailored agents. This is intended to ensure more secure, context-rich, and intelligent applications across enterprises. Furthermore, the partnership is designed to facilitate faster development, deployment, and optimization of intelligent applications grounded in mission-critical business data.
Irfan Khan, President and Chief Product Officer for SAP Data and Analytics at SAP SE, commented, “Bringing Snowflake to SAP Business Data Cloud empowers our customers with openness and choice. Together, we combine SAP’s decades of leadership in mission-critical business applications with Snowflake’s modern data platform to deliver a unified, enterprise-ready, and SAP-supported experience that extends the value of business data across the entire ecosystem.”
In addition to SAP Snowflake, the partnership includes SAP Business Data Cloud Connect for Snowflake, a capability enabling bidirectional, zero-copy data sharing. Existing Snowflake users can integrate their instances with SAP Business Data Cloud for zero-copy access, providing real-time access to semantically rich SAP data products without duplication.
AstraZeneca, a global pharmaceutical company, is among the customers supported by this partnership. Russell Smith, Vice President of ERP Transformation Technology at AstraZeneca, noted, “AstraZeneca is constantly pushing the boundaries of science and is pioneering in life-changing medicines. Data and AI are central to achieving this aim, and our close collaboration with SAP and Snowflake compliments our ability to access, process and analyze real-time data. This announcement will accelerate our mission and recognizes that every minute matters to make breakthroughs for patients.”
SAP Snowflake is planned for general availability in Q1 2026, while SAP Business Data Cloud Connect for Snowflake is slated for general availability in H1 2026.
