Snowflake and OpenAI have sealed a multi‑year partnership valued at $200 million that embeds OpenAI’s advanced models, including GPT‑5.2, directly into Snowflake’s data platform. The integration enables Snowflake’s over 12,000 customers to build AI agents, run semantic analytics, and create applications that operate on their own data without leaving Snowflake’s governed environment. By weaving generative AI into Snowflake Cortex AI and Snowflake Intelligence, the deal aims to simplify enterprise AI adoption, boost productivity, and keep data secure, while signaling a broader shift toward platform‑level AI capabilities in the cloud market. Leia mais →

The creators of the open‑source inference engine vLLM have launched a venture‑backed startup called Inferact, raising $150 million in seed funding at an $800 million valuation. The round was co‑led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Inferact aims to bring the high‑performance vLLM technology, originally incubated at the UC Berkeley lab of Databricks co‑founder Ion Stoica, to enterprise customers. Early adopters include Amazon’s cloud services and a major shopping app, signaling strong market interest as AI inference moves to the forefront of commercial deployment. Leia mais →

Naveen Rao, former head of AI at Databricks, has closed a $475 million seed financing for his new venture Unconventional AI, valuing the company at $4.5 billion. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures, with Lux Capital and DCVC also participating. Rao’s aim is to build an energy‑efficient computer for artificial intelligence, a goal he describes as “as efficient as biology.” The funding represents the first installment toward a potential $1 billion total raise. Rao’s prior successes include MosaicML, acquired by Databricks for $1.3 billion, and Nervana Systems, acquired by Intel for more than $400 million. Leia mais →

Databricks is reportedly in early-stage discussions to secure new capital that would place the data intelligence firm at a valuation of at least $130 billion, according to The Information. The company has not signed a term sheet yet. This potential round would represent a valuation increase of roughly 30% compared with its $100 billion valuation from the recent $1 billion Series J round. CEO Ali Ghodsi previously said the funds would support a database for AI agents and an AI agent platform. Databricks also recently acquired open‑source database startup Neon for $1 billion, reflecting its aggressive push into the $105 billion database market and the growing share of AI‑generated databases. Leia mais →

Andy Konwinski, co‑founder of Databricks and the AI research firm Laude, warned that the United States is losing its AI edge to China, describing the shift as an existential threat to democracy. Speaking at the Cerebral Valley AI Summit, he highlighted that PhD students at top U.S. universities are seeing twice as many compelling ideas from Chinese firms as from American ones. Konwinski argued that open‑source collaboration, exemplified by the freely released Transformer paper, is essential for breakthroughs, while proprietary models and multimillion‑dollar salaries are draining talent from academia. He urged the U.S. to revive open scientific exchange to stay competitive. Leia mais →

Databricks announced a multi‑year partnership with OpenAI that integrates the AI firm’s models—including GPT‑5—into its data platform and AI product, Agent Bricks. The deal, valued at a minimum of $100 million, gives Databricks customers secure, native access to OpenAI’s models via SQL or API, allowing them to build AI‑driven applications on top of enterprise data. The partnership builds on earlier work that added OpenAI’s open‑weight models, gpt‑oss 20B and gpt‑oss 120B, to the platform, and follows a similar revenue‑target arrangement Databricks struck with Anthropic. Early customer demand, including from Mastercard, signals strong interest in the combined offering. Leia mais →