Data analytics and artificial intelligence startup Databricks Inc. said it has reached terms to raise an unspecified amount of venture capital in a Series K round that values the company at more than $100 billion.

The prospective funding comes just seven months after the company closed a $10 billion Series J  round and $5.25 billion debt instrument that valued it at $62 billion.

Databricks was mum about the details, noting that the round has yet to close. It said only that it expects to use the new capital to “accelerate its AI strategy,” and in particular Agent Bricks, a set of tools for automating the building and deployment of autonomous AI agents. It also plans to invest the funds in its new serverless Lakebase database management system, support AI acquisitions and expand globally. ‘

“This valuation reflects investor confidence in AI and data convergence and their strategic value in delivering enterprise outcomes,” said Jayesh Chaurasia, a senior analyst at Forrester Research Inc. “It’s a signal that data strategy is now a boardroom priority and Databricks must expand its capabilities to business personas.”

Scott Bickley, an advisory fellow at Info-Tech Research Group Inc., said the timing of the announcement may have been driven more by publicity purposes than funding.

“I think they want the headline to be the $100 billion valuation the AI roadmap and Lakebase,” he said. “They want to control the narrative so it isn’t just about how many billions they’ve raised.”

Databricks has been locked in a duel with rival Snowflake Inc. for supremacy in AI development. Unlike Snowflake, it has resisted pressure to go public. Chief Executive Ali Ghodsi (pictured) hinted last October that a public offering might be in the company’s plans, but Databricks has since raised two giant funding rounds and appears to be in no hurry.

Snowflake staged one of the most successful initial public offerings in the history of the software business in 2021, but its stock dropped by two-thirds over the next 15 months. However, its stock price has nearly doubled over the past year amid investor enthusiasm for AI, creating a tailwind for Databricks.

Info-Tech’s Bickley said there good reasons Databricks isn’t rushing toward an IPO right now. “Going public is very costly and carries a whole regulatory process of going forward,” he said. “They don’t have to worry about all that right now. They have complete flexibility, and the private markets right now are the core markets for raising money for AI investments.”

While Snowflake must remain accountable to investors and transparent about certain aspects of its strategy, Databricks “can maintain secrecy about their product roadmap,” Bickley said. “They can control the narrative and set the tone and the pace for what the market sees.”

A Databricks spokesman said, “We’ll go public when the timing makes sense. We are already acting like a public company in many ways and will be ready when the time comes.”

Gartner Inc. Director Analyst Deepak Seth said the two competitors are converging around platforms that combine database management, data science/machine learning and analytics/business intelligence. “Databricks is ‘AI-first’ while Snowflake is still ‘data-first,’ and right now, the market is rewarding AI-first,” he said.

Databricks’  strategy appeals to enterprise that value openness and flexibility, while “Snowflake still commands unmatched strength in structured data workloads,” said Seth, who created Gartner’s Data Science and Machine Learning Magic Quadrant. “Both are moving aggressively to reshape what a unified enterprise data and AI platform looks like.”

The company didn’t say who participated in this latest round other than to cite “backing from existing investors.” The company’s list of previous investors includes many of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms as well as technology giants and overseas investors.

“Databricks is benefiting from an unprecedented global demand for AI apps and agents, turning companies’ data into goldmines,” Ghodsi said in a statement. “We’re thrilled this round is already oversubscribed.”

The company has recently launched or expanded partnerships with Microsoft Corp., Google Cloud, Anthropic PBC, SAP SE and Palantir Technologies Inc. It claims more than 15,000 customers of its Data Intelligence Platform. The company said in July that annualized revenue had reached $3.7 billion on a 50% annual growth rate.

Photo: Databricks/livestream