Databricks hits $188B valuation, extending its run as AI’s favorite second act

Databricks on Thursday announced a new funding round that values the company at $188 billion. The round was led by Coatue. The exact amount raised was not disclosed, but other outlets report it is approximately $3 billion. The money has not yet been received, and the round will close later this summer.

While it is unusual to announce funding before closing, a venture capitalist told TechCrunch the deal is solid due to high demand from many firms wanting to participate. Databricks has been on a fundraising spree over the past year and a half, successfully transitioning its image from a SaaS company to an AI provider.

Previous rounds include: February 2026 – $5 billion at a $134 billion valuation; September 2025 – $1 billion at $100 billion; December 2024 – $10 billion at $62 billion. The numerous rounds have led to jokes about running out of alphabet letters.

Founded in 2013, Databricks initially succeeded in the big data era with software for storing and analyzing large data volumes. Because it already held vast enterprise data, it was well-positioned to meet AI demand, launching products like Lakebase, Unity, and Omnigent.

Databricks actively uses Chinese open-weight models, such as Z.ai's GLM 5.2, to control costs. Last week, CEO Ali Ghodsi shared internal benchmarking results showing that open models, particularly GLM 5.2, perform as well as proprietary models on coding tasks at lower cost. Surprisingly, the choice of harness—the agentic coding tool—also significantly impacts costs. The open-source harness Pi proved to be one of the best at managing context.

These moves reinforce Databricks' image as an AI leader, helping it raise funds and boost valuation. The AI effect is so strong that even sandwich chain Jersey Mike's mentioned AI 22 times in its S-1 documents.