Databricks has signed a term sheet for a new strategic funding round that values the data and artificial intelligence company at $188 billion. Existing investor Coatue is leading the financing, which is expected to include additional new and existing investors.
Databricks expects the transaction to close later in the summer of 2026. The company did not disclose the amount it plans to raise.
The new capital will support Databricks’ artificial intelligence strategy, including continued development of Unity AI Gateway, Genie and Lakebase.
Databricks also expects to use the financing to pursue future AI acquisitions and expand its artificial intelligence research activities.
Unity AI Gateway is the company’s multi-AI governance product. It is designed to help enterprises manage access to different AI models while monitoring security, reliability and spending.
As organizations adopt a growing number of AI models and applications, they may need centralized controls for determining which employees and systems can access individual models.
The platform can also help businesses select different models for different workloads rather than relying on the most advanced and expensive option for every request.
Databricks believes enterprises are increasingly focused on achieving the best business result for each dollar spent on AI.
This approach involves matching workloads with the appropriate model based on factors such as cost, performance, speed, security and accuracy.
Genie is Databricks’ AI coworker, which enables users to obtain answers and take actions using an organization’s business data.
The product is intended to make company data more accessible to employees who may not have experience writing code or constructing complex database queries.
Users can ask questions in natural language, while Genie draws on governed enterprise data to generate responses and assist with workflows.
Databricks plans to expand Genie as customers seek AI systems that understand their organizations’ terminology, data and business processes.
Lakebase is the company’s serverless Postgres database designed for AI agents and applications.
Postgres is a widely used open-source relational database system. Databricks’ serverless approach is intended to reduce the infrastructure work required to deploy and manage databases as application demand changes.
AI agents frequently need databases that can store information, retrieve context and support actions performed across enterprise systems.
Lakebase is designed to provide that operational data layer while connecting with the broader Databricks Data + AI Platform.
The company said many enterprises continue to experience a context gap that limits their ability to deploy AI at scale and generate returns from their investments.
Business data can be spread across multiple systems and may not be organized in a way that AI applications can securely access and understand.
Organizations can also face challenges controlling model costs, enforcing governance policies and ensuring AI systems use reliable information.
Databricks addresses these issues by unifying data and AI capabilities on one platform.
Its platform is designed to provide infrastructure for building AI agents, controlling access to data and models, managing costs and supplying applications with company-specific business context.
The new funding will allow Databricks to continue investing in a multi-AI strategy that does not require customers to depend on a single AI model provider.
Enterprises can instead select the models that best match specific use cases and apply common governance policies across those systems.
Databricks believes this flexibility will become more important as AI models become increasingly specialized and organizations seek to manage rapidly growing inference costs.
The strategic round follows continued expansion of the Databricks platform across data management, analytics, AI development and agent-based applications.
The company’s products include Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse and Unity Catalog.
Databricks said more than 20,000 organizations use its platform to develop and operate data and AI applications, analytics systems and agents.
Customers include adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian and Unilever.
The company also said approximately 70% of Fortune 500 companies use the Databricks Data + AI Platform.
Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco and operates more than 30 offices globally.
The planned financing would provide additional resources for product development, research, acquisitions and commercial expansion as enterprises increase their investments in AI infrastructure.
KEY QUOTE:
“Enterprises are moving from tokenmaxxing to valuemaxxing. They don’t want to burn expensive tokens on the smartest model for every task. They want the best outcome per dollar. That means having the freedom to choose the right AI for the job. This new capital lets us keep pushing our multi-AI strategy forward to meet massive customer demand, so we can keep strengthening Unity AI Gateway, expanding Genie, and advancing Lakebase.”
Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Databricks
