Snowflake's chairman sold $308 million of stock in 12 weeks, and only kept 19,024 shares
Filings disclosed on 22 September 2026 complete the picture: nine pre-scheduled sales grossed about $307.9 million for chairman Frank Slootman between 26 June and 21 September, leaving 19,024 directly held shares, days after analysts raised targets on an AI-driven beat.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
The total the wires never added
Each Form 4 went out on its own, and each got a one-line story. Stacked, they show Snowflake's chairman Frank Slootman sold 1,008,191 shares across nine transactions between 26 June and 21 September 2026, grossing about $307.9 million at sale prices from $250 to $335 1. The final two sales, $65.9 million on 18 September and $34.5 million on 21 September, landed in one filing disclosed on 22 September 12.
Exercise at $8.88, sell the same day
The filings show one repeated trade: exercise options struck at $8.88, sell every share at the market, same day 25. An 18 August filing confirms the same pattern a month earlier 7. On 18 September the exercise lifted Slootman's direct position to 216,233 shares; the sales ended the day at 19,024, worth about $6.4 million at the 22 September price 2. What remains is not small: about 210,000 shares sit in family trusts, and roughly 4.1 million options remain on a series that runs to 28 May 2029 2.
Nine scheduled sales grossed $307.9M as the share price ran from $250 to $335
Data
| Gross proceeds | |
|---|---|
| 26 Jun | $0.03M |
| 29 Jun | $25.15M |
| 20 Jul | $79.49M |
| 21 Jul | $2.84M |
| 18 Aug | $81.71M |
| 19 Aug | $15.72M |
| 16 Sep | $2.61M |
| 18 Sep | $65.89M |
| 21 Sep | $34.46M |
The bulls were buying what he was selling
The schedule ran straight into a target-raising wave. Snowflake's 2 September report showed product revenue up 37% to $1.49 billion, and management lifted fiscal 2027 product revenue guidance to $6.07 billion from $5.84 billion 3. Thirty-four analysts rate the stock a buy, the consensus target is $414.24, and UBS went to $500 on 3 September 1. Underneath sit twelve straight quarters of GAAP losses, including a $192 million net loss on $1.547 billion of revenue in the July quarter 6.
Revenue more than doubled in three years while twelve straight quarters ended in GAAP losses
- Revenue
- Net income
Data
| Revenue | Net income | |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 '23 | $0.73B | -$0.21B |
| Q4 '23 | $0.78B | -$0.17B |
| Q1 '24 | $0.83B | -$0.32B |
| Q2 '24 | $0.87B | -$0.32B |
| Q3 '24 | $0.94B | -$0.32B |
| Q4 '24 | $0.99B | -$0.33B |
| Q1 '25 | $1.04B | -$0.43B |
| Q2 '25 | $1.15B | -$0.3B |
| Q3 '25 | $1.21B | -$0.29B |
| Q4 '25 | $1.28B | -$0.31B |
| Q1 '26 | $1.39B | -$0.3B |
| Q2 '26 | $1.55B | -$0.19B |
The plan predates the run
The honest reading cuts both ways. The 10b5-1 plan was adopted on 19 September 2025, before a run that carried the stock from a $118.30 low to a $384.56 high 12. Sale sizes track option tranches, not headlines, and the filings state no reason; pre-arranged plans are built so no reason is needed. The arithmetic stands regardless: the chairman's direct stake is $6.4 million against a $118.59 billion market value priced for the AI ramp 1.
The next seat is lower in the stack
On the day the September filings went in, Nscale named Slootman an independent director at a company that sells the layer beneath the software story: AI cloud, data centers, low-cost power 4. "Nscale represents the next generation of enterprise platforms, built from the ground up for the AI revolution," he said in the announcement 4. Snowflake's former CFO Mike Scarpelli took a board seat at ClickHouse the same week 1. About 4.1 million options remain at $8.88. The selling schedule can run for years; the $414 consensus has to be right a lot sooner.
How this brief was made
01Gathered & sourced305 channels · 1,067 articles▾
Agents swept 305 channels and ingested 1,067 articles, then de-duplicated and ranked them for signal.
02Verified & cross-validated7 claims · 36 data feeds▾
Every one of 7 load-bearing claims was checked against primary sources, with 36 live data feeds reconciling the figures and charts.
- 1The Lincolnian Online, "Insider Selling: Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) Director Sells $65,887,526.90 in Stock", 22 September 2026
- 2SEC EDGAR, Form 4, Frank Slootman / Snowflake Inc., filed 22 September 2026 (accession 0001628280-26-063114)
- 3Zacks Equity Research via Yahoo Finance, "Snowflake Q2 Earnings Beat on Product Revenues and AI Strength", 3 September 2026
- 4Nscale via PR Newswire (Yahoo Finance), "Nscale appoints Frank Slootman to the Board of Directors and Adam Rosman as Chief Legal Officer", 22 September 2026
- 5SEC EDGAR, Form 4, Frank Slootman / Snowflake Inc., filed 22 July 2026 (accession 0001402348-26-000016)
- 6Sharadar quarterly fundamentals, from Snowflake's SEC filings, retrieved 28 September 2026
- 7SEC EDGAR, Form 4 filing index, Frank Slootman / Snowflake Inc., filed 20 August 2026 (accession 0001402348-26-000017)
03Reviewed & edited1 human editor▾
One editor read the draft against the evidence, tuned the framing, and signed off before it shipped.
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AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
