Databricks closed a $5 billion funding round at a $190 billion valuation after investor demand reached $15 billion — five times what the company initially planned to raise.

Co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi told TechCrunch the company originally sought just $1 billion. But a June report from The Information triggered a flood of investor interest that forced Databricks to issue more stock to avoid offending existing backers.

"We wanted to raise $1 billion, but then The Information printed this article saying that Databricks is doing a big fundraise," Ghodsi said. "As soon as that article went out, there was a long line of investors that started calling. My phone blew up."

The round was led by Coatue alongside Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price accounts, and new investor Sixth Street Growth. About two dozen VCs participated in total.

Why investors lined up

Databricks hit $7 billion in annualized revenue, growing at 80% while maintaining cash-flow positive operations. Its core cloud data warehouse product generates $1.5 billion of that run rate, still expanding at 100% year-over-year.

The company's AI products are driving additional growth. Lakebase, its database for AI agents launched in June 2025, reached $100 million revenue run rate. Its AI chatbot tool Genie for business analysis is "insanely popular," according to Ghodsi.

Databricks plans to use the capital for AI research, which Ghodsi called "very expensive" with a 100-person team, plus acquisitions. The company has multibillion-dollar cloud commitments with major hyperscalers and recently bought Electric, maker of the lightweight Postgres database PGlite.

This week's acquisition followed purchases of AI cybersecurity company Panther in June and two startups in March.

Ghodsi told CNBC he still wants to take Databricks public eventually. But with instant access to $15 billion in investor interest on favorable terms, the company continues funding AI investments privately while avoiding public market scrutiny of its massive spending.