Name: Snowflake surges on Q2 earnings: The Investment Committee's software strategy
Uploaded: 2026-09-03T18:36:53+00:00
Duration: 536 s

Speakers

Josh Brown — CEO, Ritholtz Wealth Management

Jason Snipe — Founder, Odyssey Capital Advisors

Bryn Talkington — Managing Partner, Requisite Capital Management

Jim Lebenthal — Partner, Cetera Investment Management

Scott Wapner — Host, CNBC

Summary

The Investment Committee debates the investability of software stocks after Snowflake's blowout Q2 earnings. The panelists argue the SaaS-apocalypse narrative was wrong and driven by hedge fund positioning rather than fundamentals. They highlight Snowflake's AI data-governance role, vertical SaaS resilience in Toast and ServiceTitan, and a broader software recovery. The discussion also extends to debunking the related private-credit systemic-risk narrative.

Snowflake surges about 21% on blowout earnings and a new 52-week high.
Josh Brown reiterates his long Snowflake thesis tied to agentic AI data governance.
Jason Snipe highlights Snowflake's product revenue growth, margin expansion, and 126% net revenue retention.
Bryn Talkington says software shorts have been squeezed and IGV is approaching its highs.
Jim Lebenthal argues the SaaS apocalypse and Microsoft weakness were narrative-driven, not fundamental.
Josh Brown defends vertical SaaS names Toast and ServiceTitan as AI beneficiaries.
Bryn Talkington also rejects the private-credit systemic-risk narrative, citing Blue Owl and Apollo strength.

Ideas

Josh Brown CEO, Ritholtz Wealth Management 0:52

Snowflake is agentic AI data governance layer

Josh argues Snowflake was unfairly punished in the software selloff and is the data-governance layer for the coming agentic AI era. He notes 120-130% net revenue retention, existing customers spending more with no drop-off, and says 9,000 customers are already running agentic workflows directly inside Snowflake data lakes. He is long the stock, which nearly doubled from his late-May call around $205.

Bryn Talkington Managing Partner, Requisite Capital Management 4:04

Software bearish narrative died; IGV recovers

Bryn argues hedge funds have been short the software basket and many software names have had V-shaped bounces off the bottom. She says IGV is about to make a race back to its highs, and the bearish software narrative that these companies are going away has died. The danger is getting too bearish on technology sectors and letting narrative replace price.

Jim Lebenthal Partner, Cetera Investment Management 5:01

SaaS apocalypse narrative follows price, false

Jim says the SaaS apocalypse narrative followed price and was driven by hedged shorts and positioning, not fundamentals. Earnings now show software companies were doing fine; even Microsoft was below $400 for much of the first half, and now fundamentals give a lot of reasons to be in software spaces.

Josh Brown CEO, Ritholtz Wealth Management 6:28

Vertical SaaS disintermediation fears are wrong

Josh says he averaged down into Toast and ServiceTitan because the market narrative had it backwards: Silicon Valley assumed AI would disintermediate SaaS middlemen, but businesses want SaaS vendors that can be held accountable, and vertical end users like restaurant owners and contractors will not build their own software. Toast and ServiceTitan are now selling AI to their existing customer bases.

Bryn Talkington Managing Partner, Requisite Capital Management 8:37

Private credit systemic-risk narrative wrong

Bryn argues the private-credit systemic-risk narrative went hand in glove with the SaaS-apocalypse narrative and should be debunked too. Names at the epicenter such as Blue Owl and Apollo are up about 30%, showing the bearish thesis was wrong and these stocks are working.

Snowflake surges on Q2 earnings: The Investment Committee's software strategy

Summary

Ideas

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