Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi thinks the AI boom (and bubble) are creating pockets of relentless sameness across tech.
“I’m a little bit worried,” he said. “There’s definitely too much of everybody doing the same thing in general…It’s kind of like watching kids play soccer—all of them run towards the same ball. Then, there’s a big collision in the middle, somebody kicks the ball somewhere else—and then all of them run that way.”
Ghodsi and Databricks, in many ways, stand near the top of the AI heap. The company was founded in 2013, and has since raised billions in venture backing as it becomes a stalwart data, analytics, and AI platform. A favorite among enterprises, the company’s footprint is astonishing: In Q3, Databricks said it surpassed a $4.8 billion annual revenue run-rate, marking year-over-year growth of 55%.
Databricks announced that revenue figure with another key piece of financial news on Tuesday: that it had raised north of $4 billion—at a $134 billion valuation—for its Series L. And yes, that’s pretty darn far into the alphabet, a testament to how much financial infrastructure now exists for high-flying unicorns to stay private (and, frankly, calling Databricks a unicorn seems exceedingly quaint).
