Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks

Databricks, headquartered in San Francisco, will raise at least an additional 5 billion US dollars in the latest round of refinancing. Sources revealed that as this round of financing is still ongoing, the company may raise another 8 billion US dollars. The latest round of financing will bring the company valuation to 55 billion US dollars.

Sources said that the latest round of financing aimed to help Databricks employees sell stocks. Reducing the pressure on employees to cash out also reduced the need for liquidity events like IPOs. This round of financing has made the highly anticipated IPO of Databricks less urgent.

Founded in 2013, Databricks sells software to help companies organize data and build their own generative artificial intelligence products. It uses machine learning to help customers like AT&T and Walgreens analyze and understand large amounts of data.

This round of financing may be the largest in the year of AI financing boom. CB Insights data shows that a third of the venture capital this year went to an AI startup. OpenAI set a record in 2024, raising 6.6 billion US dollars at a valuation of 157 billion US dollars in October.