Databricks’ AI Vice President Naveen Rao will exit the Silicon Valley tech company with plans to launch his own startup, as per an Economic Times report dated 12th September, 2025.
Rao has had prior experience in launching firms of his own. In 2023, he sold a data and AI analytics startup called MosaicML to Databricks for $1.3 billion.
According to his personal LinkedIn, Rao joined Databricks in July 2023. Before that, he was CEO and co-founder of MosaicML for 2 and a half years. He also occupies board positions at Allen Institute, Beacon Biosignals, and NeuReality.
He will be moving to an advisory role, as confirmed by a spokesperson from the company.
The update comes days after the company said it would hit $4 billion in annualized revenue as demand ramped up for its AI products, according to Reuters. Databricks has over 10 years of experience in helping firms handle large amounts of data.
Databricks joins the trend of sky-high valuations
The Series K funding round has given the company a valuation of $100 billion, mimicking the trend of AI-focused companies receiving extremely large amounts of funding or very high valuations.
Currently, pure AI companies like OpenAI and Mistral AI are not listed on public stock exchanges, with tech companies like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Google, and others representing the stock growth in markets that the emerging sector has to offer.
OpenAI is reportedly in talks to sell shares that would give the company a valuation of $500 billion, up from an earlier $300 billion valuation.