AI startup Databricks valued at $28 billion; Microsoft, Google, Amazon join funding

Artificial intelligence startup Databricks said on Monday it raised fresh capital at a US$28 billion valuation, with investments coming from Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

The startup, which develops technology that delivers improved analytics to cloud computing platforms, has some 5,000 customers, including 40 per cent of Fortune 500 companies, which use the service for data engineering.

The latest funding round of US$1 billion was led by the investment firm Franklin Templeton and includes Amazon Web Services, the Google investment arm Capital G and Microsoft, a previous investor.

Also joining were new investors Salesforce, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Fidelity Management & Research LLC and Whale Rock, along with existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Alkeon Capital Management and other financial firms.

“We see this investment and our continued rapid growth as further validation of our vision for a simple, open and unified data platform that can support all data-driven use cases, from BI (business intelligence) to AI,” said Ali Ghodsi, Databricks chief executive and co-founder. Business Times