CEO of Databricks: The year 2026 is

      Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi has stated that 2026 is “a terrible year to go public” as SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI are set to attract over $200 billion for their IPOs. The $134 billion data company has opted to hold off until a calmer period.

      Three companies are planning to debut in public markets this year, potentially surpassing a combined valuation of $3 trillion. SpaceX expects to go public as soon as June 12 with a valuation of $1.77 trillion, looking to sell 555.6 million shares at a fixed price of $135 each, making it the largest IPO ever. Anthropic has submitted a filing at a $965 billion valuation, while OpenAI is preparing its own filing with a target of up to $1 trillion.

      Though Databricks, valued at $134 billion and anticipated to be an IPO candidate this year, has decided to sit out. “We will be a public company,” CEO Ali Ghodsi told Bloomberg Television on Thursday, adding, “I just think this is a terrible year to go public.”

      Ghodsi's reasoning is clear. With SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI collectively aiming to raise over $200 billion from public investors, other tech IPOs risk being overshadowed. Institutional allocation budgets are limited, and these three massive offerings will take a large share of them.

      There’s also a valuation issue. Ghodsi previously stated he wants to avoid the pitfalls that affected many tech companies in 2022, where newly public firms had to prioritize margins after their stock prices dropped. “If I wanted to have a crazy, crazy valuation, we would have gone public in the last 12 months,” he told Fortune in December. “We just want to have a fair valuation that we can continue growing into.”

      Databricks has the luxury of waiting. The company raised over $4 billion during its Series L in December 2025 at its $134 billion valuation and subsequently secured an additional $1.8 billion in debt financing from JPMorgan and private credit lenders in January 2026. It has surpassed a $4.8 billion revenue run rate, growing more than 55% year over year, and is generating positive free cash flow.

      The primary goal for eventually going public is to provide employee liquidity. “We want to create a market transaction mechanism for our employees,” Ghodsi noted. This is a practical issue for a company where stock options and RSUs are based on private-market evaluations that have no public-market equivalent.

      Ghodsi’s decision also reflects a secondary effect of the AI IPO surge. The three significant offerings are not just capturing investor capital; they’re also taking up the resources needed to go public: banks, analysts, roadshow timelines, and media coverage. A $134 billion data platform launching in the same quarter as a $1.77 trillion rocket company would be merely a footnote, irrespective of its strong fundamentals.

      Potential IPO candidates face similar dilemmas. Any company valued under $500 billion risks being completely overlooked in the discussion. Ironically, 2026 could be seen as both the best and worst year for tech IPOs: the best for a select few large enough to attract attention, and the worst for all others.

      Databricks competes with public companies like Oracle and Snowflake in the data and AI infrastructure sector. By waiting, Ghodsi anticipates that a less crowded environment, possibly in 2027, will allow Databricks to secure a premium valuation instead of being perceived as merely a precursor. Given that the company has $6 billion in newly acquired capital and lacks an immediate need for funds, the patience required costs nothing except the liquidity its employees seek.