Databricks Buys Generative AI Startup MosaicML For $1.3B

Databricks, the data storage and management startup last valued at $38 billion, signed a definitive agreement to acquire OpenAI competitor MosaicML for $1.3 billion.

MosaicML, a San Francisco-based generative AI platform, had raised $64 million to date since launching in 2021, per reports. Its investors included DCVC, Lux Capital and Playground Global.

MosaicML allows customers to build generative AI tools using its own proprietary data — eliminating the need for users to incorporate their own data with OpenAI’s proprietary models that use public data.

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“Every organization should be able to benefit from the AI revolution with more control over how their data is used. Databricks and MosaicML have an incredible opportunity to democratize AI,” said Ali Ghodsi, Databricks’ co-founder and CEO, in a release.

Getting bigger

San Francisco-based Databricks last raised in 2021, locking up a $1.6 billion Series H led by Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global at a $38 billion valuation — making it one of the most valuable private companies in the world.

The deal for MosaicML could be another step toward the public market for the decacorn, as it looks to expand its portfolio of offerings and cash in on an exploding AI market.

While the Databricks deal is one of the first big M&A transactions in the AI space this year, the sector has seen a flood of funding dollars invested in it.

In January, Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI. In March, San Francisco-based Adept AI raised $350 million in a Series B at a reported post-money valuation of at least $1 billion. In May, Anthropic — a ChatGPT rival with its AI assistant Claude — raised a $450 million Series C that reportedly valued the company at $5 billion.

And that is only a handful of the funding deals the AI has seen since the beginning of the year.

Databricks just recently talked about surpassing a milestone of $1 billion in annual revenue and has talked about a potential IPO in the past.

Founded in 2013, Databricks has raised more than $3.5 billion, per Crunchbase. Its investors include Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, T. Rowe Price, BlackRock and many others.

Illustration: Dom Guzman