Databricks: US$188bn Valuation, Genie One and Agentic AI

Databricks is riding high. Fresh off the back of announcing Genie One at its recent DATA + AI SUMMIT in San Francisco, the cloud-based data intelligence and AI platform has confirmed strategic funding that takes its valuation to an eye-watering US$188bn. 

The company calls Genie One "the next evolution of Genie," helping marketing, finance, sales and more automate and orchestrate their work grounded in real business data.

Rich Radley, its EMEA VP of Field Engineering, is well placed to lift the lid on Genie One, not to mention Databricks's various innovation in the field of AI. 

In his role, Rich works with organisations across Europe to help them turn advances in data and AI into measurable business outcomes. Before joining Databricks, he spent almost a decade at Google, helping build Google Cloud's business across the UK and Ireland and supporting organisations as they modernised their technology and data strategies. 

“What really drew me to Databricks was the opportunity ahead,” Rich explains. “It felt like the company was at a real turning point, with AI changing not only the technology organisations use, but also the conversations they're having in the boardroom. That's something I find really exciting. 

“My role is about helping customers connect the technology with the business outcome, while supporting my team to have more strategic conversations that show how data and AI can create long-term value.”

How Genie One is different from other AI assistants

Rich argues that we've reached a point where the AI models themselves are incredibly capable. He says the real challenge now is giving them enough understanding of a business to produce outputs that people can genuinely rely on. 

“Without that,” he says, "even the most advanced assistants can deliver responses that sound plausible but miss the nuances of how an organisation actually operates.”

"Genie One addresses this issue directly by being powered by Genie Ontology, a live context layer that continuously learns from your organisation’s data, metrics, systems and knowledge. Rather than simply interpreting prompts or individual documents, it understands the relationships between them, enabling it to deliver responses that reflect how the business actually works.”

Rich explains that, with it, employees can spend less time searching for information or validating AI outputs, and more time making decisions and taking action. 

“More importantly,” he goes on, "it opens up data and AI to far more people across the organisation, removing some of the traditional dependency on technical teams while still operating within the right governance and security guardrails. 

“That's where I think businesses will see the biggest impact." 

Interesting use cases from non-technical teams

Rich argues that the real power of Genie One is "putting trusted data into the hands of those that need it in seconds, fundamentally changing the speed at which decisions are made". 

He continues: "Imagine a sales leader meeting with the CEO. Instead of saying they'll come back with the numbers, they can instantly access the latest data insights on their mobile device, analyse information in real time, ask follow-up questions and respond to market shifts as they happen.

"Or instead of a marketing team waiting on an analyst to produce a report, they can simply ask, 'Which campaigns generated the highest ROI last month?' They can then drill down further, breaking down by region or identifying which audience segments converted best."

Rich explains that a process that used to take days, can now be completed in a matter of minutes, adding: "Given the pace of modern businesses, this empowers decision-makers like never before and acts as a key strategic differentiator."

Genie One helps employees work across fragmented company data

Rich explains that, for most employees, the challenge is the spread of data across countless systems and applications. 

"Finding the right information often means switching between dashboards, documents, emails and collaboration tools before you can even start making a decision," he says.

“Genie One changes that by giving employees a single place to interact with their organisation's information using plain natural language. Whether they're looking for an answer, updating a report or automating part of a workflow, they don't need to know where the data lives or which system to access first.

“That has the potential to fundamentally change how people work. Instead of spending time hunting for information or relying on technical teams to surface it, employees can focus on making decisions and moving work forward.”

How Genie One supports Databricks' goal of democratising data and AI

Data democratisation means giving everyone in an organisation the ability to access data along with the tools and training necessary to understand it. 

Databricks has argued that the benefits of democratising data include breaking down data silos, removing bottlenecks, optimising data management and increasing data-driven decisions. 

“For me,” Rich says, "democratising data isn't just about making information easier to access; it's about giving more people the ability to turn ideas into action. Too often, the people who understand the business best still have to rely on technical teams to answer questions, build reports or test new ideas. That slows innovation down. 

“Genie One helps shift that balance by putting AI into the hands of more employees, enabling them to explore information, automate routine work and make better-informed decisions without needing deep technical expertise. 

“Importantly, that wider access doesn't come at the expense of governance. Businesses can empower more people to work with data while maintaining the controls, security and oversight needed to scale AI responsibly. That's what true democratisation looks like.”

What needs to happen for agentic AI to become a mainstream workplace tool

“I think there's still a tendency to focus on the AI itself, when the real challenge is everything underneath it,” Rich says.

Rich argues that agentic AI is only as effective as the data, systems and governance that support it. He says if agents can't access live information or operate across different parts of the business, they'll never deliver the value organisations are hoping for. 

“The next phase of AI adoption is less about building smarter agents and more about modernising the underlying data architecture,” Rich says. 

“Businesses need a single, governed foundation where operational and analytical data work together, giving AI access to accurate, real-time information without introducing unnecessary complexity.

“Poor foundations and weak governance are at the heart of why so many businesses struggle to move their agentic AI experiments beyond the pilot phase. Once organisations consistently recognise the importance of getting these foundations right, we'll see a surge in high-performing agentic deployments that deliver measurable, long-term ROI.”

Databricks strategic funding at US$188bn. 

Not long after the DATA + AI Summit in San Francisco, news broke that Databricks had secured a valuation of US$188bn following its latest funding round. It signed a term sheet for the round, which it expects to close later this summer, led by its existing investor Coatue.

The Wall Street Journal noted that the firm's US$188bn valuation represents a 40% increase from its valuation in December 2025, when Databricks raised funds at a US$134bn valuation. 

Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Databricks, says: "Enterprises are moving from tokenmaxxing to valuemaxxing. They don't want to burn expensive tokens on the smartest model for every task – they want the best outcome per dollar. 

"That means having the freedom to choose the right AI for the job."

The company says it will use the new capital to accelerate its AI strategy which covers:

• Unity AI Gateway, its multi-AI governance solution that helps enterprises govern and control costs of AI
• Lakebase, its serverless Postgres database built for AI agents
• Genie, Databricks' AI coworker that turns business data into trusted answers and actions

Genie is the Databricks AI experience for users. It gives users a single place to ask data questions in natural language, explore AI/BI dashboards and run Databricks Apps.