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“It’s dumb to IPO this year”: Databricks CEO explains why he’s waiting to go public
Databricks has just closed one of the largest funding rounds ever, raising a staggering $10 billion in fresh capital. As expected, technology investors were quick to ask what this means for the company’s plans to go public. However, CEO Ali Ghodsi has now clarified that an initial public offering (IPO) is not on the cards this year.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Ghodsi explained why Databricks is choosing to wait before listing its shares on a stock exchange. According to him, it’s “dumb” to IPO in 2024 due to the current AI bubble that he believes will burst soon.
“It’s peak AI bubble,” Ghodsi said. “It doesn’t take a genius to know that a company with five people which has no product, no innovation, no IP – just recent grads – [is not] worth hundreds of millions, sometimes billions. You get billion-dollar valuations on these startups that have nothing – that’s a bubble.”
Ghodsi believes that Databricks is in a unique position to capitalize on the growing importance of data and AI in people’s lives, which he sees as an ongoing trend rather than a fleeting fad.
“We were going after Snowflake and we demonized them, but that’s behind us,” Ghodsi added, referring to a previous initiative within Databricks called “SnowMelt” aimed at stealing business away from its competitor.
It remains unclear what exact timeline Databricks is looking at for an IPO, as Ghodsi did not provide any specific dates.
Source: techcrunch.com
