Databricks has closed a $5 billion funding round at a $190 billion valuation. The AI and data company announced the news on Thursday, according to CEO Ali Ghodsi.
The size of the round was not part of the original plan. Ghodsi told TechCrunch the company only wanted to raise $1 billion.
That changed after a report from The Information said Databricks was working on a large fundraise. The story came out during the company's annual conference in June.
"As soon as that article went out, there was a long line of investors that started calling," Ghodsi said. "My phone blew up."
Investor Demand Reached $15 Billion
Ghodsi said interest from a select group of investors alone reached $15 billion. That kind of demand created a problem for the company.
Turning away long-term backers can create tension. So Databricks chose to issue more stock instead of holding the line at its original target.
In July, the company announced it had closed a round at a $188 billion valuation. It did not share the dollar amount raised at that time.
On Thursday, Databricks confirmed the final numbers. The round totaled $5 billion, and the valuation rose to $190 billion.
Coatue led the investment. Other participants included Blackstone, MGX, several accounts tied to T. Rowe Price, and new investor Sixth Street Growth.
Sixth Street was founded by Alan Waxman, a former chief investment officer at Goldman Sachs. About two dozen firms took part in the round overall.
Revenue Growth and Recent Acquisitions
Ghodsi pointed to the company's financial performance as one reason for investor demand. Databricks has reached $7 billion in annualized run rate revenue.
That figure is growing at 80%, and the company is cash-flow positive. Its main product, a cloud data warehouse, makes up $1.5 billion of that revenue and is growing at 100% year over year.
Newer products are also gaining traction. Lakebase, a database for AI agents launched in June 2025, has reached a $100 million revenue run rate.
Genie, the company's AI chatbot tool for business analysis, has also seen strong adoption, according to Ghodsi.
Despite the strong numbers, Databricks continues to raise large sums of money. The company has now raised $20 billion over the past 20 months.
Ghodsi said AI development comes with high costs. Databricks has multibillion-dollar cloud commitments with all three major hyperscalers.
The company also runs a 100-person AI research team, an area Ghodsi described as highly competitive. Beyond research, Databricks is spending heavily on acquisitions.
This week, the company announced it is acquiring Electric, the maker of a lightweight Postgres database called PGlite. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Databricks also bought AI cybersecurity company Panther in June and two other startups in March. Ghodsi said the company does a lot of mergers and acquisitions as part of its growth strategy.
The company has not gone public, choosing instead to raise money through private funding rounds. Ghodsi told CNBC he still plans to take Databricks public at some point.
For now, the company's focus remains on funding its AI research and acquisition strategy through private capital.
