Databricks announced a whopping $10 billion funding round Tuesday, raising expectations that the startup is close to going public and could soon become the latest hot AI stock.
The Series J round values the San Francisco-based data analytics company at $62 billion, Databricks said in a statement. The round was led by major investors, including Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Insight Partners. It follows last year's Series I funding round which included AI powerhouse Nvidia as one of its new investors.
"We were substantially oversubscribed with this round and are super excited to bring on some of the world's most well-known investors who have a deep conviction in our vision," CEO and cofounder Ali Ghodsi said in a statement. "These are still the early days of AI."
Databricks, which was founded in 2013, is considered a trailblazer in cloud-based AI technology that helps companies and organizations manage and draw valuable insights from massive amounts of data.
The strong investor interest in the company is not new for Databricks which stepped into the AI spotlight long before the current frenzy sparked by the 2022 launch of ChatGPT.
"We shared numbers and forecasts for everybody on what we're going to do, and we completely blew those numbers out of the water," Ghodsi said in a 2019 interview after Databricks's Series F round which valued the company at $6.2 billion.
"And it's largely thanks to this crazy demand," Ghodsi added.
Next AI Stock: Focus On A Databricks IPO
The demand just got crazier after ChatGPT turned the tech spotlight on AI.
Databricks said it posted growth of over 60% year-over-year in the third quarter. In March, Databricks announced an expanded partnership with Nvidia.
The funding round turns the spotlight once again on a possible Databricks IPO and the rise of a new hot AI stock.
"We're certainly ready as a company: The way we're operating, the way we're doing our audits, the way our financials are, the CFO, the board structure," Ghodsi told the Wall Street Journal in March. "So we'll make a strategic decision whenever that time comes."
