Meta Joins $10 Billion Databricks Funding Round Amid AI Boom

Meta Joins $10 Billion Databricks Funding Round Amid AI Boom

Databricks announced that Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) participated in its $10 billion Series J funding round, valuing the data analytics startup at $62 billion. The funding, closed on Wednesday, aims to drive Databricks’ expansion and new product development.

In addition to equity funding, Databricks secured a $5.25 billion credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) alongside Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). Founded in 2013, the San Francisco-based company provides a platform for ingesting, analyzing, and building AI applications from complex data sources.

Investors have been flocking to AI startups since the rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT, with OpenAI raising $6.6 billion in 2024. Companies like Meta are heavily investing in developing large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT to advance AI capabilities. Databricks collaborates closely with Meta's Llama team, creators of open-source LLMs, to optimize enterprise AI applications.

Ali Ghodsi, Databricks' CEO, emphasized the natural alignment between the two companies, stating, "Thousands of customers are using Llama on Databricks, and we’ve been working with Meta to better serve enterprise clients."

Databricks’ Data Intelligence Platform is used by over 10,000 organizations, including Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Block, Rivian (NASDAQ:RIVN), and Shell (LON:SHEL), to manage data for AI-driven insights. With this new funding, Databricks is poised to accelerate its role in advancing AI adoption across industries.

Meta’s investment underscores the growing demand for AI innovation as businesses increasingly integrate AI technologies into their operations.