- Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi claims AGI has arrived by pre-2022 industry definition
- Company raised $5 billion, valuation now at $190 billion with $7 billion revenue run rate
- Funding led by Coatue, includes Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price, Sixth Street Growth
Databricks co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi has claimed that artificial general intelligence (AGI) has already arrived, at least according to the definition the technology industry used before 2022. His comments come as investors have committed $5 billion in fresh funding to the data and AI company, lifting its valuation to $190 billion.
Databricks said it has closed the strategic funding round after its annualised revenue run rate crossed $7 billion, with its revenue run rate growing more than 80% year-on-year in the second quarter.
The round was led by Coatue, with participation from Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price and new investor Sixth Street Growth.
The latest valuation is up from the $188 billion figure attached to the funding round announced in July.
Databricks said the new capital will accelerate its AI strategy, including investments in Unity AI Gateway, Genie and Lakebase, while also supporting potential AI acquisitions.
Also Read | Databricks To Invest Over $250 Million In India Over Three Years
Why Ghodsi Says AGI Has Arrived?
Ghodsi's definition of AGI is narrower than the increasingly ambitious interpretation now used across the AI industry. He argues that AI effectively meets the older definition of AGI if it can perform the intellectual tasks humans perform and is smarter than most people most of the time.
He distinguishes this from a more extreme vision of superintelligence, where AI could potentially outperform humanity's collective research capabilities. "If that is your definition, then of course it is not here," Ghodsi said, according to Forbes.
For Ghodsi, the bigger problem is no longer whether AI is intelligent enough. It is whether enterprises can give AI the context, data, permissions and systems needed to act effectively.
Databricks is positioning its products around that gap. Its Unity AI Gateway is designed to help businesses route AI workloads across different models while controlling costs.
Genie aims to connect AI with enterprise data and context, while Lakebase provides a serverless Postgres database designed for AI-agent applications.
Also Read | Databricks Introduces New Tools To Build Scalable, Trusted AI Agents
The strategy also reflects a growing concern among enterprises: the cost of running AI at scale. As companies deploy more agents and generate more tokens, businesses are increasingly looking for ways to match workloads with the most cost-effective model rather than automatically using the most powerful one.
Despite its soaring valuation, Databricks is also unlikely to rush toward an IPO. According to Forbes, Ghodsi said the company is "very unlikely" to go public before Anthropic or OpenAI, citing market volatility and the changing technology landscape.
The $190 billion valuation underscores investors' confidence that the next phase of enterprise AI will depend not only on smarter models but also on the data and infrastructure needed to deploy them inside businesses.
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.