By Jaspreet Singh and Pritam Biswas Feb 9 (Reuters) – Databricks said on Monday it has raised about $5 billion in funding at a $134 billion valuation, as the data analytics software startup bolsters its balance sheet while keeping options open for a U.S. stock market debut later this year. The privately held startup, which also announced about $2 billion in new debt capacity, said that its annualized revenue run-rate rose 65% to $5.4 billion in the fourth quarter. Databricks offers a platform designed to help users ingest, analyze and build AI applications using complex data from various sources. It competes with Snowflake and analysts widely see it as a public listing candidate along with marquee names such as SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic. A potential Databricks IPO in 2026 would add to signs of a thawing new-issues market, with highly valued companies testing investor appetite as equity markets rebound and interest rates drop. The company said it will use the new capital to accelerate development of Lakebase, its AI-focused database, and Genie, its conversational assistant. "With this new capital, we'll double down on Lakebase so developers can create operational databases built for AI agents. At the same time, we're investing in Genie to let every employee chat with their data, driving accurate and actionable insights," co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi said in a statement. Databricks said that its AI products currently bring in $1.4 billion in annualized revenue. Ghodsi told CNBC on Monday that Databricks will go public "when the time is right," echoing his December comments to Reuters that the company has not ruled out a 2026 IPO. Not all market watchers agree an IPO is the best near-term path. If late-stage private capital prices you at $134 billion and lets you keep building without quarterly theater, "you stay private and preserve control," said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner and CIO at Running Point Capital Advisors. JPMorgan Chase led the debt financing. Goldman Sachs, Glade Brook Capital, Morgan Stanley, Neuberger Berman and the Qatar Investment Authority were among the investors in the new equity round. (Reporting by Pritam Biswas and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
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