Databricks Secures $15.3 Billion in Financing, Valuation Soars to $62 Billion

Samsung's AI phones, Databricks' $10 billion, and Palona's sales agent: This week's AI launches

Data and AI company Databricks announced that it closed a $10 billion Series J funding round this week, valuing it at $62 billion. The new funding will go toward AI products, acquisitions, and expanding its international go-to-market operations, it said. Meta has also joined the company as a strategic advisor. Additionally, Databricks closed a $5.25 billion credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase (JPM). Barclays (BCS), Citi (C), Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley (MS), and other financial institutions also participated. "We received overwhelming interest in this round from both new and existing investors and strategic partners who believe in our vision and market impact," Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks, said in a statement. "These partners are focused on the long-term success of Databricks and our rapidly growing customer base. Organizations are modernizing their data and AI infrastructure because they recognize the immense potential of generative AI. Data intelligence is critical to both unlocking this potential and to helping enterprises reach their business goals."

Databricks bags $15bn to expand and attract AI talent

The latest funding round puts the company's valuation at $62bn, with Meta joining as a new strategic investor. Following earlier reports, US software company Databricks has officially closed a multibillion-dollar funding round to invest in AI products, acquisitions and expansion. The Series J funding of $10bn came from existing investor QIA, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, along with new investors including Temasek and Meta. Meanwhile, Databricks closed a $5.25bn credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase alongside Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, with participation from other leading financial institutions and alternative asset managers. This brings its total to more than $15bn and puts the company's valuation at $62bn. As well as investing in AI products and talent, the funding will also be used to provide liquidity for current and former employees and paying related taxes. Founded more than 10 years ago, Databricks provides a data intelligence platform designed to make it easier for organisations to use data machine learning, analytics and AI applications. Last year, SiliconRepublic.com named it one of the tech start-ups to watch in 2024. Co-founder and CEO of Databricks, Ali Ghodsi, said the company received "overwhelming interest" in its latest funding round. "Organisations are modernising their data and AI infrastructure because they recognise the immense potential of generative AI," he said. "Data intelligence is critical to both unlocking this potential and to helping enterprises reach their business goals." The company said more than 10,000 organisations around the world, including Block, Comcast, Condé Nast, Rivian and Shell, rely on its AI-powered data intelligence platform. In 2021, Databricks raised $1.6bn at a valuation of $38bn, becoming one of the many 'decacorn' start-ups in 2021, while in 2023, it raised more than $500m in a Series I funding round. Last year, the company acquired Tabular - a data management company - in a deal reportedly valued at $2bn. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Databricks seals $15 billion in financing to attract top AI talent and accelerate global expansion

This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. In addition, Meta has joined as a new strategic investor. Databricks plans to invest this capital toward new AI products, acquisitions, and expansion of its international go-to-market operations. This capital is also expected to be used toward providing liquidity for current and former employees and paying related taxes. In addition to raising the $10 billion equity financing from some of the most well-known investors, Databricks closed a $5.25 billion credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase alongside Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, with participation from other leading financial institutions and alternative asset managers. The credit facility includes a $2.5 billion unfunded revolver and a $2.75 billion term loan. "We received overwhelming interest in this round from both new and existing investors and strategic partners who believe in our vision and market impact. These partners are focused on the long-term success of Databricks and our rapidly growing customer base," said Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Databricks. "Organizations are modernizing their data and AI infrastructure because they recognize the immense potential of generative AI. Data intelligence is critical to both unlocking this potential and to helping enterprises reach their business goals." The Databricks Data Intelligence Platform democratizes access to data and AI, making it easier for organizations to harness the power of their data for analytics, machine learning, and AI applications. Built on an open source foundation, the platform enables organizations to drive innovation to increase revenue, lower costs, and reduce risk. Customers use the Data Intelligence Platform to find and treat diseases and cancer earlier, identify new ways to combat climate change, detect financial fraud, develop pharmaceuticals faster, reduce time to mental health intervention, decrease local financial inequality and much more. "We are excited to deepen our commitment to Databricks through this follow-on investment, underscoring our strong conviction in the company's leadership and strategic positioning," said Mohammed Saif Al-Sowaidi, CEO of QIA. "At QIA, we are expanding our exposure across the AI ecosystem and believe Databricks has become the leading platform within the AI infrastructure software space."

Databricks Secures $15.3 Billion in Financing

Last month, the company raised $10 billion in a funding round led by Thrive Capital. Databricks has closed $15.3 billion in financing, valuing the company at $62 billion. JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley led the financing, which included $10 billion in Series J equity funding and $5.25 billion in debt financing. The new funding will support the development of AI products, international expansion, acquisitions, and liquidity for current and former employees. CEO Ali Ghodsi said that AI infrastructure has helped organisations optimise operations and manage risks. Last month, the company raised $10 billion in a funding round led by Thrive Capital. Leading venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, and GIC, participated in the round. Since its founding 12 years ago, the San Francisco-based company has raised $19 billion in total funding. Participants in the Series J round include Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Temasek, Macquarie Capital, and Meta, which have joined as strategic investors. Databricks' platform enables businesses to combine and analyse large datasets and support projects such as retail forecasting, disease detection, and climate change mitigation. The platform also standardises structured and unstructured data for use in machine learning models. "We are excited to deepen our commitment to Databricks through this follow-on investment, underscoring our strong conviction in the company's leadership and strategic positioning," said Mohammed Saif Al-Sowaidi, CEO of QIA. "At QIA, we are expanding our exposure across the AI ecosystem and believe Databricks has become the leading platform within the AI infrastructure software space." Meta's participation reflects a broader trend of large technology companies investing in AI ventures, following similar investments like Meta and Amazon's funding of Scale AI. The data and AI company is anticipated to go public this year, a development that could potentially unsettle Snowflake, a major player in the AI cloud data space. Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi, however, downplayed any competition with Snowflake, stating that Databricks has significantly outpaced its rival. "We had a program called Snow Melt to target Snowflake, but that's behind us now," he said in a recent interview. Meanwhile, Anil Bhasin, vice president of India and the SAARC region at Databricks, announced his departure from the company after a tenure of more than two and a half years. In a statement, Bhasin reflected on his experience and expressed gratitude for his role in building the Databricks brand in India.

Databricks closes $15.3B financing at $62B valuation, Meta joins as 'strategic investor' | TechCrunch

Data analytics platform Databricks has confirmed that it has closed a previously announced $10 billion in Series J equity financing at a $62 billion valuation. The San Francisco-based company also added a further $5.25 billion in debt financing, funded by JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, among other "leading financial institutions and alternative asset managers," according to a press release. Founded in 2013, companies use Databricks to pool and analyze vast swathes of data from disparate systems to glean insights -- for instance, a retailer might want to combine different datasets to figure out what products sell best, at what times of year, to forecast inventory requirements. Moreover, data is pivotal to the burgeoning AI revolution, with Databricks serving as a unified platform for preparing data for building and deploying machine learning models. The company has now raised around $19 billion financing over its 12 year history, with its Series J round -- first announced in December when it had raised $8.6 billion of its $10 billion target -- ushering in a slew of notable new and existing investors. Indeed, in addition to Temasek and Qatar's sovereign wealth fun, QIA, Facebook's parent company Meta also joined the as "strategic investor." Corporate investment into AI-aligned companies has become something of a trend, with Meta also joining a $1 billion investment into data-labelling startup Scale AI last year.

Databricks Wraps Up $15B Financing Round, Adds Meta As A 'Strategic Investor'

The fast-growing big data and AI platform developer, which announced a $10-billion Series J equity funding round in December, this week added a $5.25 billion credit facility to its war chest and identified additional investors. Data and AI platform juggernaut Databricks has closed its Series J funding round, adding a $5.25 credit facility to its previously announced $10 billion equity financing and disclosing that social media giant Meta is a new "strategic investor." The San Francisco-based company said Wednesday that existing investor QIA, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, along with new investors Temasek and entities administered by Macquarie Capital, also participated in the Series J funding round that puts Databricks' market cap at $62 billion. Databricks first announced the Series J funding last month and at the time said the round of $10 billion in expected non-dilutive financing was co-led by new investor Thrive Capital and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, Insight Partners and WCM Investment Management. Other significant participants identified at the time included existing investor Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and new investors ICONIQ Growth, MGX, Sands Capital and Wellington Management. [Related: Databricks' New Offering Promises Speedier AI, Analytical Application Development] The Wednesday announcement added Meta, QIA and Macquarie Capital to the list of investors in the equity funding round without disclosing the size of their stakes. Databricks said that in addition to the $10 billion in equity funding, the company closed a $5.25 billion credit facility led by JPMorgan chase along with Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley with participation from other leading financial institutions and alternative asset managers. The credit facility includes a $2.5 billion unfunded revolver and a $2.75 billion term loan. Databricks, one of the IT industry's fastest growing companies, said it would apply the additional capital to developing new AI products, making additional acquisitions and expanding its international go-to-market operations. It will also use some of the new capital to provide liquidity for current and former employees and pay related taxes. "We received overwhelming interest in this round from both new and existing investors and strategic partners who believe in our vision and market impact. These partners are focused on the long-term success of Databricks and our rapidly growing customer base," said Ali Ghodsi, Databricks co-founder and CEO, in a statement. "Organizations are modernizing their data and AI infrastructure because they recognize the immense potential of generative AI. Data intelligence is critical to both unlocking this potential and to helping enterprises reach their business goals." The Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, the company's flagship product, provides a comprehensive range of capabilities for data analytics, data lakehouse, machine learning and AI tasks. In December Databricks, which remains privately held, said it had experienced 60 percent year-over-year growth in recent quarters and disclosed that it expected to surpass the $3 billion annual revenue run rate and achieve positive cash flow in the fourth quarter. "We are excited to deepen our commitment to Databricks through this follow-on investment, underscoring our strong conviction in the company's leadership and strategic positioning," said Mohammed Saif Al-Sowaidi, CEO of QIA, in a statement. "At QIA, we are expanding our exposure across the AI ecosystem and believe Databricks has become the leading platform within the AI infrastructure software space."

Databricks closes Series J funding at $62 billion valuation, Meta joins as new investor By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Databricks, a firm specializing in Data and AI, has completed its Series J funding round, with the company now valued at $62 billion. The funding round included participation from existing investor QIA, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, as well as new investors such as Temasek and entities managed by Macquarie Capital. Additionally, Meta (NASDAQ:META) has joined the round as a new strategic investor. The capital raised from this funding round is earmarked for the development of new AI products, potential acquisitions, and expansion of Databricks' international go-to-market operations. The company also plans to use the funds to provide liquidity for current and former employees and to cover related tax expenses. In a significant addition to its equity financing, Databricks secured a $5.25 billion credit facility. This was led by JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and included contributions from Barclays (LON:BARC), Citi, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), as well as other prominent financial institutions and alternative asset managers. The credit facility comprises a $2.5 billion unfunded revolver and a $2.75 billion term loan. Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Databricks, commented on the enthusiastic response from investors. He said that the firm's new and existing investors and strategic partners who participated in the round believe in Databricks' vision and its potential market impact. Ghodsi emphasized the importance of modernizing data and AI infrastructure, highlighting its potential for generative AI and its critical role in helping enterprises achieve their business objectives. Databricks' Data Intelligence Platform democratizes access to data and AI, enabling organizations to leverage their data for analytics, machine learning, and AI applications. The platform, built on an open-source foundation, allows organizations to drive innovation, increase revenue, lower costs, and reduce risk. Mohammed Saif Al-Sowaidi, CEO of QIA, expressed his excitement about deepening their commitment to Databricks through this follow-on investment. He emphasized QIA's strong belief in Databricks' leadership and strategic positioning, stating that Databricks has become the leading platform within the AI infrastructure software space.

Databricks Hopes to Build on AI Offerings With $15 Billion Fundraise | PYMNTS.com

The company reached that valuation after closing a Series J funding round, taking in $10 billion in equity financing along with a $5.25 billion credit facility from several of the world's biggest banks, according to a Wednesday (Jan. 22) press release. The company will invest its capital in new AI products, acquisitions and the expansion of its international go-to-market operations, the release said. The funding will also help provide liquidity for current and former employees and paying related taxes. The round included participation by QIA, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, along with new investors Temasek and entities administered by Macquarie Capital, per the release. Meta joined as a strategic investor in Databricks. "These partners are focused on the long-term success of Databricks and our rapidly growing customer base," Databricks co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi said in the release. "Organizations are modernizing their data and AI infrastructure because they recognize the immense potential of generative AI. Data intelligence is critical to both unlocking this potential and to helping enterprises reach their business goals." Databricks first announced what it called a "substantially oversubscribed" Series J round last month, saying it aimed to raise $10 billion. "These are still the early days of AI," Ghodsi said in a Dec. 17 press release. "We are positioning the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to deliver long-term value for our customers, and our team is committed to helping companies across every industry build data intelligence." The company said interest in AI has accelerated Databricks' growth to over 60% year over year in recent quarters. In other AI-related news, Alex Hoffmann, general manager of North America at Edenred Pay, told PYMNTS in an interview posted Wednesday about the impact generative AI is having on the back office. "For a long time, the industry has offered up paperless alternatives to payments," including virtual cards, and real-time payments are poised to gain even more traction, Hoffmann said "What GenAI adds on top of all this is that beyond the payment, we can automate the invoice-to-pay cycle."

Databricks completes $10B funding round, raises $5.25B in debt - SiliconANGLE

Databricks Inc. has closed the mammoth $10 billion funding round it announced last month. The company disclosed the milestone today alongside the completion of a new $5.25 billion debt raise. JPMorgan Chase led the latter deal with participation from Barclays, Citi and other financial institutions. Rumors of Databricks' funding round first emerged in November. At the time, the company was expected to raise "at least" $5 billion. Reuters reported in mid-December that the number could top $9.5 billion and, a few days later, Databricks confirmed that it's raising a $10 billion Series J round. Lead investor Thrive Capital was joined in the deal by more than a half-dozen other institutional backers. Databricks revealed today that the round also included the participation of the Qatar Investment Authority, Temasek, Macquarie Capital and Meta Platforms Inc. Databricks co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ali Ghodsi (pictured) told Reuters that the investment from Meta will deepen the companies' artificial intelligence collaboration, which focuses on the Facebook parent's Llama series of large language models. Databricks provides a popular cloud-based platform for storing and analyzing data. It implements a data lakehouse architecture that can hold structured, unstructured and semi-structured records. Companies can run SQL queries on the information they keep in Databricks, use AI models to find useful patterns and perform other analytics tasks. The platform supports a data reliability standard called ACID. It reverses data modifications that are not completed successfully, which means the erroneous information such modifications often produce is deleted. Additionally, ACID prevents data modifications that are carried out simultaneously from interfering with one another. In 2023, Databricks acquired a venture-backed AI startup called MosaicML Inc. for $1.3 billion. It has since expanded its feature set with a slew of AI capabilities. On occasion of today's funding milestone, Ghodsi told Reuters that thousands of customers are running Llama models on the company's platform. Databricks provides features that enable enterprises to fine-tune, or customize, AI models using the data they keep in its platform. It also uses an open-source tool called DSPy to automate prompt tuning. This is a machine learning technique that boosts AI models' output by providing them with instructions on how to process user prompts. Databricks has integrated one of Meta's Llama models directly into its platform. The company provides prepackaged SQL functions, or programs, powered by Llama 3.1 70B. Customers can use those functions to summarize information stored in Databricks, translate it and perform other tasks without having to manually deploy an LLM. "Organizations are modernizing their data and AI infrastructure because they recognize the immense potential of generative AI," said Ghodsi. "Data intelligence is critical to both unlocking this potential and to helping enterprises reach their business goals." The company will use the proceeds from its $10 billion funding round to build new AI products. Additionally, Databricks plans to make acquisitions and grow its international go-to-market operations. Some of the capital will be used to provide liquidity for current and former employees. The new funding makes a public offering less urgent for Databricks. Shortly before rumors of its funding round emerged in November, Ghodsi stated that the company plans to list its shares in the second half of 2025 at the earliest.

Meta backs Databricks as the data analytics startup inches toward IPO

As the company that trains the popular Llama open-source large language models, or LLMs, that Databricks builds on, Meta plays an important role in the artificial intelligence. Databricks works closely with Meta's Llama team, the startup's co-founder and CEO, Ali Ghodsi, said in an interview this week. The relationship goes all the way up to Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "We've discussed open-source software in the past, and he cares a lot about open-source models and Llama," Ghodsi said. Meta doesn't invest in nearly as many startups as technology peers Alphabet and Microsoft. But Databricks has been a fast-growing company on a path to a major initial public offering. Meta invested in a $10 billion round for Databricks, one of the largest investments in the history of venture capital. Databricks has now raised $14 billion in venture funding. The new money will go toward global expansion and liquidity for current and former employees. On Wednesday Databricks also announced a $5.25 billion credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase. Credit can be a much better option than spending with stock and diluting existing shareholders, even with a high interest rate, Ghodsi said. The money in the bank did enable Databricks last year to train its own open-source LLM called DBRX, at a cost of about $10 million. DBRX performed better than Meta's Llama and other alternatives in some tests at the time, but other models quickly surpassed it. That's one reason it was reasonable for Databricks to ally itself with the most prominent open model builder. Meta has plenty of money to spend on capital expenditures to train models, and Databricks can use its money in other way, Ghodsi said. He wouldn't specify whether Meta is a client. San Francisco-based Databricks now employs 8,000 people. Ghodsi said it would not be "a huge surprise to me if we were public" a year from now. Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, participated in the $10 billion round alongside Meta. Ghodsi said Databricks is open to allowing its software to run on data centers from major operators in the Middle East. Today, it's only available through the Amazon, Google and Microsoft clouds.