Databricks Hits $188B Valuation in AI Fundraising Tear

Databricks announced a new funding round valuing the company at $188 billion, led by Coatue. The raise, reported to be roughly $3 billion, has not yet closed but the company disclosed it early amid overwhelming investor demand. It marks the latest in a rapid series of raises, following a $5 billion round at $134 billion in February and a $10 billion round at $62 billion in late 2024. Founded in 2013 as a big data company, Databricks successfully rebranded as an AI provider by leveraging its existing enterprise data infrastructure. It has launched multiple AI products and championed affordable open-weight models, including Z.ai's GLM 5.2, which internal benchmarking found competitive with proprietary models from Anthropic and OpenAI at lower cost.