Databricks didn’t plan to raise $5 billion. It planned to raise $1 billion. But when The Information reported in June that the AI data company was fundraising, CEO Ali Ghodsi’s phone lit up with a line of investors that would have made any founder envious — roughly $15 billion in interest from a hand-picked group alone. Ghodsi recalled the timing as “the worst” since it landed mid-conference, but the demand turned a news report into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Databricks expanded the round, and on Thursday confirmed the final tally: $5 billion at a $190 billion valuation, up slightly from the $188 billion figure floated in July.
The investor list reads like a who’s who of late-stage capital. Coatue led, joined by Blackstone, MGX, accounts tied to T. Rowe Price, and newcomer Sixth Street Growth, founded by former Goldman Sachs CIO Alan Waxman. About two dozen firms participated. The business fundamentals justify the frenzy. Ghodsi says Databricks has hit a $7 billion annualized run rate, growing 80% year-over-year, and is cash-flow positive. Its core cloud data warehouse contributes $1.5 billion and is still growing at 100%. Lakebase, the database for AI agents launched in June, has already reached a $100 million revenue run rate.
So why raise at all when the balance sheet looks this good? Ghodsi points to multibillion-dollar cloud commitments with all three hyperscalers and an AI research team of 100 people in a brutally competitive talent market. The company also keeps acquiring — this week it bought Electric, maker of the lightweight Postgres database PGlite, following June’s Panther purchase and two more startups in March. All of that takes cash.
The private fundraising has become something of a running joke in Silicon Valley. Databricks has now pulled in roughly $20 billion over the past 20 months without an IPO, and the internet has started mocking the alphabet soup of round names. Ghodsi still says a public listing is coming eventually — with this many investors expecting liquidity, he can’t say otherwise. But when you can summon $15 billion in demand on your own timeline, the public markets can wait.
