Databricks raises $5 billion at $190 billion valuation

Databricks raised $5 billion in new funding at a $190 billion valuation, co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi told TechCrunch after the deal was announced Thursday. The round almost didn't get that big: Ghodsi says Databricks originally wanted to raise just $1 billion. 'We wanted to raise $1 billion, but then The Information printed this article saying that Databricks is doing a big fundraise. They did that in the middle of our conference. We were heads down with our conference, and we were not actually at all focused on fundraising,' he said, referring to a Databricks conference held in June.

The article turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once it ran, Ghodsi says, investors started calling in force. 'As soon as that article went out, there was a long line of investors that started calling. My phone blew up,' he said, adding that within the select group of investors Databricks looked at, interest reached $15 billion. Turning down that much demand from existing backers risked hard feelings, so Databricks chose to issue more stock than it had planned. In July, the company put out a press release saying it had closed the round at a $188 billion valuation, without disclosing how much money had actually been raised. On Thursday, it filled in the rest: a $5 billion round, and a valuation that had climbed to $190 billion.

The round was led by Coatue and joined by Blackstone, MGX, several accounts across different arms of T. Rowe Price, and new investor Sixth Street Growth, the firm founded by former Goldman Sachs chief investment officer Alan Waxman. About two dozen VCs in total were named as participants.

Ghodsi points to Databricks' underlying numbers as the reason for the demand. He says the company has hit $7 billion in annualized run-rate revenue, currently growing at 80% and cash-flow positive. Its core product, a cloud data warehouse, makes up $1.5 billion of that $7 billion total and is growing even faster, 100% year-over-year, he said. Newer AI products are adding to the growth: Lakebase, Databricks' database built for AI agents, launched in June 2025 and has already reached a $100 million revenue run rate, while Genie, an AI chatbot that performs business analysis on the spot, is, in Ghodsi's words, 'insanely popular.'

If the business is doing that well, why raise more money at all? Ghodsi's answer is that AI is expensive. Databricks carries multibillion-dollar cloud commitments with all three major hyperscalers, and it runs an AI research team of 100 people in what Ghodsi calls a highly competitive area. The company is also acquisitive. This week it announced the purchase of Electric, maker of the lightweight Postgres database PGlite, which Ghodsi describes as a way for AI agents to spin up their own databases; terms were not disclosed. In June, Databricks bought AI cybersecurity company Panther; in March, it bought two more startups. 'We do a lot of M&A,' Ghodsi said. The new $5 billion comes on top of the $20 billion Databricks had already raised over the prior 20 months.

Databricks' pattern of raising huge rounds while staying private, rather than going public, has become something of a meme in Silicon Valley. When the round was first announced last month, people online joked that the company was raising so often it was running out of letters of the alphabet. Ghodsi has separately told CNBC that he still wants to take Databricks public one day, but for now says he wants to keep focusing on investing in AI. The piece frames that choice as one Ghodsi can afford to make on his own timeline, given that he can reportedly summon $15 billion of investor interest whenever he wants it.

Key facts

Databricks raised $5 billion in new funding, announced Thursday, at a $190 billion valuation, after originally wanting to raise just $1 billion for the round.
The expansion followed a report from The Information, published in the middle of Databricks' June conference, that CEO Ali Ghodsi says drew $15 billion of interest from the investors the company vetted; a July press release had already disclosed a $188 billion valuation without stating the round's dollar size.
The round was led by Coatue and joined by Blackstone, MGX, several arms of T. Rowe Price, and new investor Sixth Street Growth, founded by former Goldman Sachs chief investment officer Alan Waxman; about two dozen VCs participated in total.
Ghodsi says Databricks has hit $7 billion in annualized run-rate revenue, growing 80% and cash-flow positive; its core cloud data warehouse product makes up $1.5 billion of that and is growing 100% year-over-year, while Lakebase, its database for AI agents launched in June 2025, has reached a $100 million run rate.
Ghodsi cites expensive AI research, a 100-person research team, and an active acquisition pace, including this week's purchase of Electric (maker of the Postgres database PGlite), June's acquisition of AI cybersecurity company Panther, and two more startups bought in March, as reasons to keep raising on top of the $20 billion Databricks had already raised over the prior 20 months.

Why it matters

The headline number is $190 billion, but the mechanics behind it are the more specific story. Ghodsi says Databricks originally wanted to raise just $1 billion, then a report from The Information, published in the middle of Databricks' own June conference, set off a wave of investor calls that added up to $15 billion of interest from the investors the company vetted. The article frames this as a familiar bind for late-stage startups: turning down that much demand from existing backers risks offending them, so companies often end up selling more shares than they set out to. Databricks first disclosed only a $188 billion valuation in July, without the dollar amount, then revealed the full $5 billion figure and the $190 billion valuation on Thursday. Behind the numbers, Ghodsi points to strong core metrics, $7 billion in annualized run-rate revenue, 80% company-wide growth, and cash-flow positive status, as what let Databricks set the terms largely on its own schedule while remaining private.

Who it affects

Investors get direct exposure to Databricks at its new $190 billion valuation: Coatue led the round, joined by Blackstone, MGX, several arms of T. Rowe Price, and new investor Sixth Street Growth, the firm founded by former Goldman Sachs chief investment officer Alan Waxman, with about two dozen VCs participating in total. Four companies Databricks has acquired recently become part of Databricks directly: Electric, the team behind the lightweight Postgres database PGlite, bought this week; AI cybersecurity company Panther, bought in June; and two more startups bought in March. Ghodsi frames the spending pressure behind the raise as falling on cloud infrastructure and AI research: Databricks carries multibillion-dollar commitments with all three major hyperscalers and runs a 100-person AI research team, on top of the acquisitions.

How to use it

There's no product launch here, but the concrete details worth tracking are what Databricks is building and buying. Electric, acquired this week on undisclosed terms, makes the lightweight Postgres database PGlite, which Ghodsi describes as a means for AI agents to spin up their own databases. Lakebase, Databricks' own database for agents, launched in June 2025 and has already reached a $100 million revenue run rate. Genie, its AI chatbot for on-the-spot business analysis, is what Ghodsi calls 'insanely popular.' Earlier acquisitions round out the picture: AI cybersecurity company Panther, bought in June, and two more startups bought in March.

How solid is it

This account rests on Ali Ghodsi speaking directly and on the record to TechCrunch, about as primary as a funding story gets: the original $1 billion target, the $15 billion in investor interest, and the revenue and growth figures are all his own numbers as told to the reporter. The investor roster (Coatue as lead, plus Blackstone, MGX, several T. Rowe Price entities, and Sixth Street Growth) and the acquisition history (Panther in June, two startups in March) are reported by TechCrunch as established fact rather than attributed to a Ghodsi quote. The line about Ghodsi wanting to eventually take Databricks public is sourced separately, to a CNBC interview, not to this conversation. The piece does not explain how the $190 billion valuation, or the $188 billion figure that preceded it, was actually calculated or who set it.

Risks and caveats

Every dollar figure here, the $7 billion run rate, the 80% and 100% growth rates, the $15 billion in investor demand, is Ghodsi's own account to TechCrunch; nothing in the piece checks these numbers against an outside source. The article does not name which three hyperscalers hold Databricks' multibillion-dollar cloud commitments, does not name the two startups it bought in March, and does not disclose terms for the Electric acquisition. It also does not say how much of the $5 billion, or of the $20 billion raised over the prior 20 months, came from any single investor, or what ownership stake changed hands to get there.

“The interest level was just insane. Just from this select group of investors that we looked at, there was $15 billion of interest.”

— Ali Ghodsi, Databricks co-founder and CEO, to TechCrunch