Databricks hits $188B — thanks to dirt-cheap open models
databricks hit a $188b valuation led by coatue after proving open models like glm 5.2 can replace proprietary llms for engineers.
databricks achieved a $188b valuation in a funding round led by coatue, capitalizing on a successful pivot from legacy data storage to enterprise ai infrastructure. internal benchmarking of 3,000 engineers revealed that open-weight models, specifically z.ai's glm 5.2, match the capability of proprietary models from openai and anthropic at a lower cost. the company emphasized that the choice of 'harness' or agent wrapper is equally critical for cost optimization, creating a new focus beyond model selection. this rapid valuation increase from $62b in late 2024 signals strong market rewards for companies leveraging ai to monetize existing enterprise data moats.