Databricks lands $5bn funding, valuation climbs to $190bn

Databricks has closed a $5bn strategic funding round at a $190bn valuation, and said it passed a $7bn revenue run-rate in its second quarter, growing more than 80% year on year.

Coatue led the round. Blackstone, MGX, accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, and T. Rowe Price Investment Management, and new investor Sixth Street Growth also participated.

Other first-time backers were BOND, Point72, Clearlake Capital, Premji Invest and TPG.

Existing shareholders taking part included Andreessen Horowitz, Dragoneer, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Franklin Templeton, GIC, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Kinetic, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, NEA, Insight Partners, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Temasek, J.P. Morgan Private Capital, Thrive Capital and WCM Investment Management.

Databricks disclosed further operating metrics alongside the raise. It reported positive adjusted free cash flow over the trailing 12 months.

Lakehouse, its data warehousing product, passed a $1.5bn revenue run-rate, growing over 100% year on year.

Lakebase, a serverless Postgres database built for AI agents, exceeded a $100m revenue run-rate. More than 1,000 customers were consuming at over $1m revenue run-rate, and more than 100 at over $10m.

Proceeds of the investment round will go towards three products.

Databricks said Lakebase provides real-time operational data. Genie, which it describes as an AI coworker, turns business data into answers and actions.

Unity AI Gateway handles governance across multiple AI models, along with routing and cost controls.

Databricks framed the spending around the requirements of AI agents, which it characterises as a new category of workforce for enterprises.

According to the company, agents need a scalable foundation, accurate answers drawn from enterprise data, and the ability to forecast budgets and shift to cheaper models rather than consuming expensive tokens.

Databricks co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi said: “Enterprises don’t just want AI that talks. They want agents working across their business that remember context, deliver accurate answers, and execute work without blowing through their budgets.

“That requires real-time operational data with Lakebase, context from across the business with Genie, and multi-AI cost controls with Unity AI Gateway. The tremendous investor demand for this round shows that our AI strategy is winning the market and building what every business needs to maximize their impact with agents.”

Databricks first flagged the round in July at a $188bn valuation, when it had signed a term sheet and expected to close later in the summer with additional new and existing investors.

Coatue co-founder Thomas Laffont said: “Databricks has spent a decade being early to where AI was headed. Now it’s the infrastructure the industry builds and scales AI on.

“What stands out most is the pace: they’ve compressed research and development (R&D) timelines that used to take years into months, more like a research lab than a typical software company. We’ve been investors since 2019, and results like that are why we’re proud to lead this round today and keep building with them.”

Separately, Databricks and Microsoft expanded their decade-long partnership last month, extending it into the 2030s.

Databricks will increase its use of Azure Databricks for core business operations and its unified lakehouse, and will adopt Azure Cobalt, Microsoft’s Arm-based infrastructure, to improve performance and efficiency. Microsoft will continue integrating the Databricks Data and AI platform into its products, including bringing Genie into customer workflows.

Earlier this month, Databricks closed the previously announced acquisition of Panther, an AI security operations centre (SOC) platform aimed at security operations.