In an interview with TechCrunch+, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi discussed the company's plans for AI and growth. He explained that Databricks' high valuation and investment are due to its unique combination of data storage and AI tooling. The company's core product, a data lakehouse, stores the data that fuels AI, offering the best features of both a data lake and a data warehouse.
Key takeaways:
- Databricks has raised a new $500 million funding round, valuing the company at $43 billion.
- The company is known for its data and analytics work, but is also developing more AI tooling and recently purchased MosaicML to enhance its AI capabilities.
- Strategic investors in the funding round included Nvidia, indicating a growing demand for AI-related computing power.
- Databricks stores data in its data lakehouse, which is a combination of a data lake and a data warehouse, providing the best of both worlds.