Databricks Raises $5B at $134B Valuation as AI Data Stack Race Intensifies

Databricks has secured $5 billion in new equity financing alongside $2 billion in additional debt capacity, valuing the private data and AI infrastructure firm at $134 billion and reinforcing its position near the top of the enterprise software hierarchy.

The company also reported that annualized revenue exceeded $5.4 billion for the January quarter, representing 65% year-over-year growth, while generating positive free cash flow over the past year — a combination that is increasingly rare among high-growth AI infrastructure companies.

CEO and co-founder Ali Ghodsi said the company is prepared to go public “when the time is right,” signaling that an IPO remains on the table as market conditions stabilize.

AI Is Now a Material Revenue Engine

Like much of the next-generation enterprise stack, Databricks’ growth is being driven by artificial intelligence adoption. The company helps enterprises connect proprietary data to AI models, deploy custom agents, and manage storage, processing, and query workloads across its lakehouse architecture.

AI-related products now account for roughly $1.4 billion in annualized revenue, according to the company, underscoring how quickly generative and agent-driven workflows are becoming embedded in enterprise data pipelines.

The pace of expansion is accelerating. As recently as June, Databricks projected 50% growth; the latest figures suggest momentum has continued to build despite broader volatility in software stocks.

IPO Window Re-Opening for AI Infrastructure

The funding round arrives as investors anticipate a potential reopening of the tech IPO market. Fast-growing AI labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI have reportedly explored 2026 public offerings, while SpaceX has also been floated as a possible entrant to public markets.

Still, Ghodsi emphasized that Databricks is willing to remain private if market volatility persists. “If this correction hasn’t bottomed out yet, we’ll continue as a private company,” he said, noting that venture capital sentiment often lags public-market moves.

The round drew participation from major institutional investors including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Qatar Investment Authority, Neuberger Berman, and Glade Brook Capital, with JPMorgan leading the debt portion. The company now sits on billions in fresh capital.

Competitive Pressure Across the Data Stack

At a $134 billion valuation, Databricks now dwarfs rival Snowflake, which recently reported quarterly revenue of about $1.21 billion and carries a market capitalization near $58 billion. With the wide release of its Lakebase database, Databricks is also moving more directly into territory historically dominated by incumbents such as Oracle and SAP.

Those competitive pressures come at a fragile moment for public software names. Oracle and Snowflake shares both fell roughly 13% last week amid broader concerns that open-source AI tooling — including plugins tied to Anthropic’s Claude ecosystem — could compress margins across the sector.

Ghodsi characterized the selloff as an overreaction but acknowledged that competitive moats across enterprise software are narrowing as AI lowers switching costs and accelerates product cycles.

The New Center of Gravity in Enterprise Software

Founded in 2013, Databricks has steadily evolved from a data-engineering platform into a full AI operating layer for enterprises. Its latest raise suggests investors increasingly view control of the data layer — not just the model layer — as the most defensible position in the AI stack.

If public markets reopen to high-growth issuers, Databricks is now positioned as one of the few companies with the scale, growth, and cash flow profile to test whether investors are ready to fund the next generation of AI infrastructure at mega-cap valuations.