Databricks wanted to raise $1B, investors wanted $15B. It settled on $5B at a $190B valuation.
TechCrunch Julie Bort ● Covered by 5 sources
Databricks wanted $1B, but investors swarmed it with $15B of interest. It ended up taking $5B instead, at a $190B valuation.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Julie Bort — read the original for the full story.
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Databricks tried to keep its latest fundraise quiet, then a report about it made the whole thing blow up. Co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi said the company had been focused on a June conference when the fundraising chatter started, and suddenly investors were calling nonstop. What began as a plan to raise $1 billion turned into a flood of demand that was too large to ignore.
Ghodsi said the company saw $15 billion of interest from a limited group of investors it was considering. That kind of demand creates its own problem: if you leave people out, especially longtime backers, you risk souring relationships. So Databricks sold more stock than it first intended, then closed a round in July at a $188 billion valuation before later saying the total was $5 billion and the valuation had climbed to $190 billion.
The round was led by Coatue and included Blackstone, MGX, accounts tied to T. Rowe Price, and new investor Sixth Street Growth. About two dozen venture firms were listed as participants. Sixth Street, Ghodsi noted, was founded by former Goldman Sachs chief investment officer Alan Waxman.
The company’s pitch is simple enough: the numbers are strong, and AI is expensive. Ghodsi said Databricks has hit a $7 billion annualized run rate, growing at 80%, and is cash-flow positive. Its cloud data warehouse accounts for $1.5 billion of that run rate and is still growing at 100% year over year. He also pointed to newer AI products, including Lakebase, which launched in June 2025 and has reached a $100 million revenue run rate, and Genie, a chatbot for instant business analysis.
Then there’s the spending. Databricks has already raised $20 billion over the past 20 months, and Ghodsi said the company carries multi-billion-dollar cloud commitments with all three major hyperscalers. It also has an AI research team of 100 people and keeps buying companies, including Electric this week, Panther in June, and two startups in March. For now, the public market can wait. When investors are lining up with that much money, private is looking pretty comfortable.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Databricks is basically proving that the best time to go public is whenever the checks stop arriving in a stampede. The real story here isn’t the valuation — it’s how late-stage AI has turned fundraising into a mild extortion event, where saying no is now the dangerous move. Very healthy industry, obviously.
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