Ghodsi’s Databricks Raises Record $10 Billion
Databricks, the Silicon Valley-based AI company led by Swedish-Iranian CEO Ali Ghodsi, is raising a record-breaking $10 billion in a J-round. This massive cash injection brings the company’s valuation to $62 billion.
The company has seen increased momentum and accelerated growth in recent years due to the unprecedented interest in artificial intelligence.
“These are still the early days of AI,” Ghodsi said in a written statement. “We’re building transformative infrastructure to help companies unlock the power of their data and drive innovation.”
Databricks expects to hit a $3 billion revenue run rate and achieve positive free cash flow by the end of the fourth quarter ending January 31, 2025
Thrive Capital leads the $10 billion Series J funding round, also including Andreessen Horowitz, GIC, and other prominent investors. So far, $8.6 billion is said to be secured. The new capital will support product development, acquisitions, and an expanded international presence, including recently established hubs in London and Singapore.
Databricks provides a unified platform that helps organizations harness data for analytics, machine learning, and AI applications.
Ali Ghodsi was born in Tehran in the late 1970s. His family fled to Sweden during the Iran-Iraq War. After studying computer science and economics at Mitthögskolan in Sundsvall, he completed a Ph.D. at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, focusing on large-scale data systems.
In 2009, Ghodsi arrived as a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he and his team developed Apache Spark, and the group founded Databricks in 2013. Ghodsi became CEO in 2015 when Databricks faced financial challenges. He implemented significant changes, steering the company to focus on AI and machine learning tools. Ghodsi remains connected to academia as an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley.
This is an article in Swedish written by Margaretha Levander and published in Affärsvärlden:
https://www.affarsvarlden.se/intervju/utanforskapet-i-sverige-gav-mig-drivkraft
