Databricks wanted to raise $1B, investors offered $15B. The company settled on $5B at $190B valuation.

Databricks co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi told TechCrunch that the company initially sought to raise $1 billion, but after The Information reported on the fundraising during a company conference in June, investor interest surged dramatically. Ghodsi described receiving a flood of calls and noted that a select group of interested investors offered $15 billion, prompting Databricks to increase the round size. The company closed the round at $5 billion, led by Coatue, with participation from Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price accounts, new investor Sixth Street Growth, and about two dozen other VCs. Databricks reported strong financials: $7 billion annualized run-rate revenue growing 80%, cash-flow positive, with its cloud data warehouse contributing $1.5 billion and growing 100% year-over-year. The company's new database for agents, Lakebase, launched in June 2025, reached $100 million revenue run-rate, and its AI chatbot tool Genie is popular. Despite raising $20 billion over the past 20 months, the company continues to raise capital because AI is expensive, with multi-billion-dollar cloud commitments to all major hyperscalers and an AI research team of 100 people. Databricks is also active in M&A, recently acquiring Electric, the maker of PGlite, and having previously acquired Panther and other startups. The company's repeated private fundraising has become a meme in Silicon Valley, but Ghodsi expressed continued interest in an eventual IPO.