Databricks has secured a strategic funding round at a valuation of US$188 billion as the data and artificial intelligence company looks to accelerate its AI development and expand its enterprise AI capabilities.
The funding round, led by existing investor Coatue, has signed a term sheet and is expected to close later this summer with participation from additional new and existing investors. Databricks said the fresh capital will be used to strengthen its AI strategy, including its Unity AI Gateway, Genie and Lakebase platforms.
The company said the investment will support efforts to address challenges faced by businesses adopting AI at scale, particularly issues involving fragmented data, governance, security and rising AI costs.
Databricks said many enterprises are struggling to maximise AI adoption as business data remains scattered across different systems and disconnected from AI tools, making it harder for companies to manage reliability, access and expenses.
Its Unity AI Gateway is designed to help organisations govern multiple AI models and manage costs, while Genie uses business data to provide answers and actions. Lakebase, meanwhile, is a serverless Postgres database developed to support AI agents.
“Enterprises are moving from tokenmaxxing to valuemaxxing. They don’t want to burn expensive tokens on the smartest model for every task, they want the best outcome per dollar. That means having the freedom to choose the right AI for the job,” said Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks.
“This new capital lets us keep pushing our multi-AI strategy forward to meet massive customer demand, so we can keep strengthening Unity AI Gateway, expanding Genie and advancing Lakebase.”
Databricks said the funding will also support potential future AI acquisitions and expand its AI research efforts as demand for enterprise AI solutions continues to grow.
