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Data analytics platform Databricks has confirmed that it has closed a previously announced $10 billion in Series J equity financing at a $62 billion valuation.
The San Francisco-based company also added a further $5.25 billion in debt financing, funded by JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, among other "leading financial institutions and alternative asset managers," according to a press release. The company has now raised around $19 billion in financing over its 12-year history ($14 billion of that in equity).
Databricks has long been used for major data science projects. For example, companies use the platform to pool and analyze vast swaths of data from disparate systems to glean insights -- for instance, a retailer might want to combine datasets to figure out which products sell best, at what times of year, to forecast inventory requirements.
More recently, Databricks has gained prominence as a major cog in AI projects. Data is pivotal to the burgeoning AI revolution, and Databricks serves as a unified platform for combining and standardizing data -- structured and unstructured -- vital for building and deploying machine learning models.
This latest Series J round -- first announced in December, when Databricks had raised $8.6 billion -- ushers in a slew of notable new and existing investors. In addition to Temasek and QIA (Qatar's sovereign wealth fund), Facebook's parent company Meta is also backing Databricks as a "strategic investor."
It's not clear whether Databricks is a customer of Meta's and/or the other way around. We're asking the companies and will update this post as we learn more.
It's worth noting that corporate investment into AI-aligned companies has become something of a trend, with Meta and Amazon joining a $1 billion investment into data-labeling startup Scale AI last year.
With this fresh cash injection, Databricks said that it plans to invest in new AI products, bolster its global "go to market" operations, and fund new acquisitions.
But the big $62 billion question now, however, is what is happening with regards to Databricks' longstanding IPO plans?
Back in December, Databricks' CEO Ali Ghodsi said it would be "dumb to IPO" last year, what with the election and new administration, as well as ongoing anxiety over the economy. He added that the "earliest theoretical possibility" for an IPO would be some time in 2025.
However, the company also said that it's putting some of its fresh cash bounty toward providing liquidity to "current and former employees," suggesting an IPO might happen later rather than sooner.
This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/22/databricks-closes-15-3b-financing-at-62b-valuation-meta-joins-as-strategic-investor/