Your Tech Story

Databricks

Databricks Clinches $43 Billion Valuation, Plans More AI Tools

Databricks Clinches $43 Billion Valuation, Plans More AI Tools

Leave a Comment / Artificial Intellegence, News, Tech News / By

Databricks Inc., a leading software provider in the field of data and analytics, has secured a staggering $500 million in new funding, skyrocketing the company’s valuation to a remarkable $43 billion. 

Databricks Clinches $43 Billion Valuation, Plans More AI Tools
Image Source: tradealgo.com

This significant funding round, led by T. Rowe Price and featuring participation from strategic investors Nvidia Corp. and Capital One Financial Corp., underscores Databricks’ unwavering commitment to advancing AI tools. Databricks’ CEO, Ali Ghodsi, expressed his enthusiasm for the strategic partnership with Nvidia, saying, “We’re very excited about this strategic partnership with Nvidia to build custom large language models.” These models are in high demand by corporations eager to harness their capabilities to work with vast data sets and respond to human-phrased queries effectively. Ghodsi added, “This investment lets us double down on our generative AI strategy.”

The company’s strategic shift towards AI is evident, as it has been actively developing its own large language model, which can be utilized by businesses to create their own AI-powered conversational agents, similar to ChatGPT. Nvidia, under the leadership of CEO Jensen Huang, has been a proponent of expanding the application of AI into new markets. The chipmaker has been investing in developing both hardware and software solutions to facilitate the integration of AI into various industries, potentially expediting the adoption of innovative products and services.

In this latest funding round, each share of Databricks is valued at $73.50, a noteworthy achievement that maintains the company’s valuation since its last funding round two years ago, after adjusting for a stock split.

While Databricks has been increasingly perceived as a strong candidate for an initial public offering (IPO), CEO Ali Ghodsi has clarified that there is no specific timeline in mind. Ghodsi’s focus remains firmly on the company’s growth, both organically and through acquisitions. In June, Databricks announced the closure of its $1.3 billion acquisition of Mosaic ML, further solidifying its presence in the AI landscape.

Also Read: Softbank-backed Arm raises $4.87 billion at $51 per share in biggest IPO of 2023

In a press release, Databricks disclosed that it is on track to achieve an annual revenue of $1.5 billion, marking an impressive 50% increase from the previous year. The company boasts a customer base exceeding 10,000 clients, with over 300 of them projected to invest upwards of $1 million annually.

Databricks’ dedication to advancing AI tools and its substantial valuation reflects the growing significance of AI in the tech industry. With this latest funding injection, Databricks is poised to continue shaping the future of AI-driven data and analytics solutions, cementing its status as a key player in this rapidly evolving field. While an IPO remains a possibility, for now, Databricks is content to concentrate on expanding its horizons and pushing the boundaries of AI innovation.

databricks

Journey of Databricks from Academia To A $6.2 Billion Business

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By

Apache Spark’s developers formed the American enterprise software startup Databricks.

Databricks creates a web-based Spark platform with IPython-style notebooks and automatic cluster management.

About the Company

Databricks, a startup with headquarters in San Francisco, was established in 2013 and has roots in both open-source development and academia.

Databricks
Image Source: capterra.com

The company, which was created by seven co-founders and is propelled by enormous industry potential, aids data professionals, scientists, analysts, and engineers in cooperating to uncover value in data and develop solutions to the most difficult challenges in the world.

Databricks’ seven co-founders, all of whom were researchers at UC Berkeley, were able to capitalize on the idea that, when coupled with A.I., data offers the potential to treat illnesses, save lives, combat climate change, and even alter how we live.

Also Read: The richest man in the video game business

As a result, Databricks offers the only open, unified platform for full-lifecycle machine learning, business analytics, and massive-scale data management. This enables data teams to innovate more quickly and collaboratively.

History

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi has been interested in programming since his parents gave him an old Commodore 64 when he was eight years old. He pursued a Ph.D. in distributed computing as well as further study in computer engineering. Later, in 2009, he teamed up with Ion Stoica to establish “Spark,” which Matei Zaharia had already started.

They further collaborated with another machine learning team, and the two of them jointly launched “Apache Spark” on the market. Companies first paid little attention since the technology seemed foreign.

They were given some hope in 2013 when Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz VC, invested $14 million in them and pushed them to create a business that would act as a platform for Apache Spark. As a result, Databricks was founded in 2013.

Success Story

Databricks’ technology, Spark, experienced tremendous growth and widespread use in 2015.

The rumor that the technology doesn’t operate if the data does not fit in the RAM was getting on the nerves of Databricks’ founders. They made the decision to turn to the market.

They participated in a nerdy contest. Reynold, co-founder and chief architect of Databricks, assisted the team in breaking the world record by sorting one petabyte of data at the fastest speed ever while using a lot less memory than one petabyte.

Also Read: Success Story of Fanatics’ Billionaire CEO

Due to media coverage of the accomplishment, Spark quickly rose to the top of the Gartner Hype Cycle and became the most widely used software. Databricks raised $883 million in several Series fundings between 2014 and 2019. Microsoft took part in the Series E fundraising round that helped to establish Azure Databricks in 2019.

The company announced that the company had made over $200 million in revenue that year. In the 2020 Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms, research company Gartner named Databricks as a Leader. In the 2020 Cloud 100, the company was rated fifth.

As more businesses try to integrate data analytics into their daily operations, Databricks is now one of the pioneers in machine learning and data science.