Databricks plans $416m investment for new Sydney office, 150 local hires, training
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The news: Databricks is committing $416 million to Australia over the next three years, opening a new 2000 square metre Sydney office, hiring 150 staff and training 100,000 people over the next five years, local country manager Adam Beavis said.
Beavis told the Australian Financial Review it would be its largest local investment, as the USD134 billion AI software company bets the local market has reached a pivotal point in AI adoption.
The company, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Australia’s Future Fund and Macquarie Capital, will grow its local headcount to 400, Beavis told the paper.
What they said: “[The local investment] is exciting because we have got to a pivotal point in uptake, so it is certainly a big acceleration,” he said.
Databricks sells a platform that consolidates an organisation’s data into a so-called “lakehouse” with a conversational interface called Genie. Local customers include NAB, Telstra, Atlassian, Airwallex and Seven West Media, the AFR noted.
“Within a large customer like NAB we could be training up to 1,000 people,” Beavis said. “We are seeing a clear shift from AI experimentation to impact across ANZ enterprises.”
He added, “We are seeing a lot of demand in energy and utilities.”
IBRS analyst David Beal told the AFR that Databricks’ growth was outpacing rival Snowflake, particularly across Asia Pacific and Japan.
CEO Ali Ghodsi has said the company was IPO-ready when market conditions were right.
The source: Australian Financial Review
