Databricks Upcoming IPO: CEO "Wouldn't Rule Out" Going Public in 2026

Over the past few years, several private market AI companies have rapidly grown into $100 billion+ valuations.⁴ But while money has been pouring into companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, many interested parties are eager for these startups to IPO.⁵

Another AI-related company that has been closely watched as an IPO candidate is Databricks. The company has been raising significant sums in recent years, but given relatively difficult market conditions for high-growth companies to IPO, it held off. While a 2025 IPO was under consideration⁶, ultimately that didn't come to fruition.

Still, Databricks has been able to keep raising funds. In December 2024, its Series J raised over $10 billion at around a $62 billion valuation. Then, in September 2025, Databricks raised over $1 billion at a $100 billion valuation⁷. Most recently, in December 2025, Databricks announced that it's raising over $4 billion for its Series L at a $134 billion valuation.⁸

The funding from Databricks' Series L  CEO Ali Ghodsi also recently said on CNBC that Databricks will eventually be a public company, and he "wouldn't rule out" going public in 2026.⁹

Databricks: Company background

Databricks, based in San Francisco, is a data analytics and AI company that was founded in 2013 by seven co-founders, all of whom remain with the company today — Ali Ghodsi, Ion Stoica, Matei Zaharia, Patrick Wendell, Reynold Xin, Andy Konwinski, and Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji.¹⁰

The co-founders have backgrounds in academia and open source projects such as Apache Spark.¹¹

Making sense of Big Data

The exponentially growing amount of data in the world is only really valuable if you can make sense of all of that information. So, companies like Databricks provide software to help companies store their data and analyze it, both from a backward-looking analytical perspective, as well as a forward-looking predictive perspective, applying AI to draw insights and recommendations from their data.

Databricks is known for its lakehouse architecture, which combines aspects of data lakes and data warehouses, and the platform is built on open source standards so companies retain more control over their data. For example, HP has used Databricks to modernize its data platform, helping to save money and improve efficiency.¹²

From an AI perspective, Databricks helps companies build and implement AI models that can be applied to these companies' own data so they can draw insights from it. JetBlue, for example, uses Databricks' AI capabilities to help in areas such as optimizing fuel efficiency, among many other applications.¹³

Databricks had over 55% year-over-year revenue growth in Q3 2025, with the company crossing $4.8 billion in revenue run-rate, which includes over $1 billion from its data warehousing business and over $1 billion from AI products.¹⁴

In all, Databricks has grown to over 20,000 customers, including over 60% of the Fortune 500. Among its customers, more than 500 are spending with Databricks at an annual revenue run-rate of over $1 million.¹⁵

The company has also made some major acquisitions to help fuel its growth, including buying data management company Tabular in 2024 for a reported $2 billion, perhaps to try to maneuver ahead of Databricks' main competitor, Snowflake.¹⁶ In 2025, Databricks also acquired Neon, a serverless database company that helps support emerging areas like agentic AI database provisioning.¹⁷

With its Series L, Databricks' valuation has grown to nearly twice the market cap of Snowflake (around $77 billion for Snowflake vs. a private market valuation of around $139 billion for Databricks).^18,19

Databricks stock price history

Databricks' Forge Price is $197.60 as of late December 2025, which is more than a 103% gain over the past year. That increase has largely come over the past few months, due to Databricks' Series K and Series L. Still, its Forge Price has climbed a bit in recent days from the Series L implied price of $190.²⁰

Forge Price is a derived data point that reflects the up-to-date price performance of venture-backed, late-stage companies, and is calculated based on a proprietary model incorporating pricing inputs from primary funding round information, secondary market transactions, and indications of interest (IOIs) on Forge.

In comparison, the Forge Private Market Index — a broad measurement that reflects the up-to-date performance and pricing activity of venture-backed, late-stage companies that are actively traded in the private market — is up 93.3% over the past year. So, the gains are similar, although Databricks has a slight edge over the index.²¹

Databricks funding history and private market valuation

Databricks has had 12 primary funding rounds, starting with its Series A in 2013, led by Andreessen Horowitz, raising $14 million at a valuation of $48.68 million.²²

In 2014, its Series B, led by New Enterprise Associates,²³ raised around $34 million at a valuation of about $250 million. In 2016, the Databricks Series C raised over $60.37 million at a valuation of nearly $520 million, followed by a Series D in 2017 that raised $140 million at nearly a $1 billion valuation.²⁴

In early 2019, Databricks raised $250 million and its valuation nearly tripled to $2.81 billion,²⁵ with this Series E round again led by Andreessen Horowitz but also including investors such as Microsoft and Coatue Management.²⁶ Later that year, the company's Series F valued Databricks at $6.2 billion, raising over $400 million.²⁷ This round was once more led by Andreessen Horowitz but also brought in large asset managers such as BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, and Tiger Global Management.²⁸

The company then took a huge leap forward by raising over $1 billion for its Series G in 2021, led by Franklin Templeton,²⁹ valuing Databricks at $28 billion.³⁰ Later that year, the Databricks Series H raised $1.63 billion, bringing its valuation to nearly $38 billion,³¹ in a round led by Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global.³²

In 2023, Databricks raised nearly $685 million for its Series I, with its valuation climbing to over $43 billion.³³ The following year, Databricks had its largest funding round, raising over $10 billion for its Series J at about a $62 billion valuation.³⁴ This round was co-led by Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, Insight Partners and WCM Investment Management.³⁵

In September 2025, Databricks raised over $1.13 billion at a $150 billion valuation for its series K,³⁶ and just a few months later, it announced its Series L would raise over $4 billion at a $134 billion valuation.³⁷

Looking ahead

Although Databricks decided to raise two more big rounds this year rather than going public, an IPO still seems to be very much the end goal. Whether an IPO comes in 2026 or later remains to be seen, but public comments show that Databricks does not intend to remain private indefinitely.³⁸

Check back here or take a look at Forge’s upcoming IPO calendar to stay in the loop about a possible Databricks IPO and other pending public offerings.

If you’re interested in investing in private companies like Databricks before they go public, read more about pre-IPO investing or register on Forge marketplace today to get started.