The editor of Downcodes learned that data analysis giant Databricks is planning to conduct a new round of financing to raise at least US$5 billion. The company's valuation is expected to reach an astonishing US$55 billion! This huge financing will give the company’s employees the opportunity to cash in part of their shares, and also heralds Databricks’ continued expansion in the fields of data analysis and artificial intelligence.
Databricks was founded 11 years ago. It was originally a commercialization project of Apache Spark, a powerful data processing framework. Later, it gradually expanded its business and has now become one of the world's leading cloud data platforms, providing big data management, advanced analysis and artificial intelligence capabilities. , serving many large enterprises.
Databricks has long been seen as a candidate for a big initial public offering (IPO), especially after rival Snowflake set a record for "the largest software IPO ever" when it went public in September 2020. However, Databricks still chose to raise capital in the private markets. In September 2023, Databricks successfully raised US$500 million in a Series I financing round led by NVIDIA and T. Rowe Price, with a valuation reaching US$43 billion. This brings the total amount of funds raised in multiple rounds of financing to $4 billion, with participating investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Bailey Gifford, Fidelity Investments, Insight Partners and Tiger Global.
Despite expecting to achieve $2.4 billion in revenue this year, Databricks has once again chosen to return to the private market for more funding. According to the Information, the amount of financing Databricks is seeking is between $5 billion and $8 billion, and the transaction will be in the form of a secondary share sale to allow existing shareholders to sell part of their holdings without going through an IPO.
If the funding is successful, Databricks will be on track to become its largest venture capital funding round ever. The current funding record is held by OpenAI, which raised $6.6 billion last month, bringing its valuation to $157 billion. Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI raised $6 billion in Series B funding earlier this year and completed another $5 billion round of financing this month.
Databricks is also using its cash reserves to make strategic acquisitions to expand its data and AI businesses. In the summer of 2023, the company acquired MosaicML, a company that develops AI model generation factories, for $1.3 billion; and at the beginning of the year, the company acquired Tabular, a company based on the open source Apache Iceberg project, for $1 billion to $2 billion. business company.
Although Databricks has not yet achieved an IPO, it is still a possibility in the future. According to CNBC, at the "Newcomers' Brain Valley AI Conference" held last week, CEO Ali Ghodsi said: "If we want to go public, it will not be until around the middle of next year at the earliest... So, this is indeed possible. Happens next year.”
Databricks’s huge financing once again demonstrates its strong strength and development potential in the fields of data analysis and AI. In the future, whether Databricks will choose an IPO and its further layout in the fields of data and AI are worthy of our continued attention. The editor of Downcodes will continue to bring you the latest reports.