As Databricks stacks more capital, a competitive AI market heats up

This morning, data and AI giant Databricks said it had raised a new $500 million funding round from venture capitalists, crossover capital funds, and strategic investors. The new cash values Databricks at $43 billion, a material step up from its last private valuation set in 2021, when the company was worth $38 billion.

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It’s not a complete surprise to see Databricks raise more capital — the company was reported to be in the market for nine figures recently. The new funds are also not a surprise given the excitement for all things AI-related, a part of the technology market that Databricks has embraced, particularly this year.

The company may be best known for its data and analytics work, but it is developing more AI tooling and recently purchased MosaicML to further build its artificial intelligence muscles.

The funding round was more than a mere cash infusion, though. It included several strategic investors, including Nvidia, which has seen demand for AI-related computing power greatly bolster its own growth and profitability in recent quarters.

To better understand the company’s own perspective, TechCrunch+ interviewed Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi about the investment, its plans for AI, growth, the current market and more.

AI stands for All In

What exactly is Databricks doing to warrant this kind of investment at this value in this market? It’s a combination of a few things, really. For starters, data is the fuel for AI, and Databricks, at its core, stores data in its data lakehouse — think a data lake and a data warehouse combined, giving the best of both worlds.