"Databricks finds itself in an awkward situation following the departure of Naveen Rao, its head of artificial intelligence, as rivals like Snowflake, Teradata, and hyperscalers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, intensify their push to develop offerings for building generative AI applications. Rao's exit comes at a time when Databricks is aggressively trying to expand its offerings inside the Data Intelligence Platform, mainly with Lakebase and Agent Bricks, thanks to the infusion of capital from this week's $1 billion Series K funding round."
""Databricks is in a tricky spot with Naveen Rao stepping back. He was not just a figurehead, but deeply involved in shaping their AI vision, particularly after MosaicML," said Robert Kramer, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "Rao's absence may slow the pace of new innovation slightly, at least until leadership stabilizes. Internal teams can keep projects on track, but vision-driven leaps, like identifying the 'next MosaicML', may be harder without someone like Rao at the helm," Kramer added."
Databricks confronts leadership uncertainty after Naveen Rao, head of artificial intelligence and MosaicML co-founder, stepped back. Rao had led research on Dolly, DBRX, and Agent Bricks and joined Databricks when the company acquired MosaicML in 2023. The exit arrives amid a $1 billion Series K funding round that supports expansion of Lakebase and Agent Bricks and lifted valuation past $100 billion. Rivals including Snowflake, Teradata, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are intensifying efforts to build generative AI offerings. The leadership gap could slow innovation and allow competitors to attract customers unless Databricks reaffirms AI as central to its platform.
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