What is Databricks?
Data and AI lakehouse platform for analytics, machine learning, governance, and enterprise AI.
- Category
- Data and AI infrastructure
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
- Founded
- 2013
- Employees
- ~8,000
- Total funding
- $15B+ disclosed
- Valuation
- $134B (2026 Series L)
What is Databricks?
Databricks is a data and AI platform that combines lakehouse storage, analytics, governance, machine learning, and AI application development.
Databricks was founded by the creators of Apache Spark and built around the lakehouse idea: combine low-cost cloud object storage with data warehouse reliability, open formats, streaming, notebooks, SQL, governance, and machine learning. Its platform includes Delta Lake, Databricks SQL, Unity Catalog, Mosaic AI, MLflow, and data engineering tools.
By 2026 Databricks was one of the largest private software companies, with reported annualized revenue above $4 billion, thousands of enterprise customers, and a $134 billion valuation after a large Series L. Its market position is defined by the collision of data warehousing, AI infrastructure, and enterprise governance.
What does Databricks offer?
Databricks offers a lakehouse platform, SQL warehouse, data engineering, governance, machine learning, AI, streaming, sharing, and marketplace products.
- Databricks SQL· Analytics
- Delta Lake· Storage format
- Unity Catalog· Governance
- Mosaic AI· AI
- MLflow· MLOps
- Lakeflow· Data engineering
- Delta Sharing· Data sharing
- Databricks Marketplace· Data products
How does Databricks make money?
Databricks makes money from cloud usage priced in Databricks Units, enterprise contracts, support, and consumption across analytics, data engineering, and AI workloads.
Databricks pricing is usage-based: customers consume Databricks Units (DBUs) for compute across jobs, notebooks, SQL warehouses, model serving, and other workloads, with rates varying by cloud, workload, region, and product tier. Large enterprises negotiate committed-use contracts, support, governance, and security terms.
Growth is driven by more data workloads moving onto the lakehouse, AI and model-serving consumption, SQL warehouse migration, Unity Catalog governance adoption, and expansion across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. The business has public-cloud gross-margin pressure but very large expansion potential inside enterprise data estates.
Who leads Databricks?
Databricks is led by co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi, with co-founder Ion Stoica as executive chair and a technical bench rooted in Apache Spark.
- Ali GhodsiCo-founder and CEOCo-founder - since 2013; CEO since 2016Leads company strategy across data, AI, and IPO readiness.
- Ion StoicaCo-founder and Executive ChairmanCo-founder - since 2013UC Berkeley professor and distributed-systems leader.
- Matei ZahariaCo-founder and Chief TechnologistCo-founder - since 2013Creator of Apache Spark and MLflow; shapes technical direction.
- Naveen ZutshiChief Information OfficerExecutive leadershipLeads internal technology and security operations at enterprise scale.
How do you contact Databricks' leadership?
Databricks publishes sales, support, partner, and press channels; verified personal executive emails are not public. Executive addresses below are format-following only.
first.last@databricks.com (format-following; verify before use)How much funding has Databricks raised?
Databricks has raised more than $15 billion in disclosed funding, including a $10 billion Series J in 2024 and a $4 billion Series L in 2026 at a $134 billion valuation.
Databricks' major rounds include early venture funding after its 2013 founding; a $250 million Series E in 2019; a $400 million Series F in 2019 at a $6.2 billion valuation; a $1 billion Series G in 2021 at a $28 billion valuation; a $1.6 billion Series H in 2021 at a $38 billion valuation; and a 2023 Series I around a $43 billion valuation.
The AI boom drove much larger later rounds: a $10 billion Series J in 2024 at about a $62 billion valuation, followed by a 2026 Series L raising about $4 billion at a $134 billion valuation. Databricks also used capital for acquisitions including MosaicML, tying its funding story directly to the enterprise AI platform race.
How did Databricks get here?
Databricks grew from Spark commercialization into one of the defining enterprise AI infrastructure companies.
- 2013FoundedApache Spark creators founded Databricks.
- 2019Series FRaised $400M at a $6.2B valuation.
- 2021Series HRaised $1.6B at a $38B valuation.
- 2023MosaicML acquisitionAcquired MosaicML to accelerate generative AI capabilities.
- 2024Series JRaised $10B at about a $62B valuation.
- 2026Series LRaised $4B at a $134B valuation.
Who are Databricks' competitors?
Databricks competes with cloud data warehouses, AI platforms, data engineering tools, and governance platforms.
- SnowflakeCloud data platform and warehouse competing for analytics, governance, and AI workloads.
- Google BigQueryServerless cloud data warehouse deeply integrated with Google Cloud.
- Amazon RedshiftAWS data warehouse competing inside AWS data estates.
- Microsoft FabricMicrosoft's integrated analytics and lakehouse platform for Azure and Power BI customers.
- ClouderaHybrid data platform with roots in Hadoop and enterprise data management.
Sources:Databricks productSnowflake
Databricks — frequently asked questions
