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Welcome back to In the Loop, TIME’s new twice-weekly newsletter about AI.
Who to Know: Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks
The three most valuable private companies in the U.S. have big reputations: OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic. But the fourth, Databricks, flies a little more under the radar. This company, which is currently raising funds at a valuation of $134 billion according to reports this week, is a quiet workhorse of the AI revolution. Databricks offers a platform where companies can combine unwieldy data from different sources, manage it easily, and train AI models with it. Its CEO, Ali Ghodsi, is a charismatic computer science professor who still teaches the occasional class at U.C. Berkeley, even as he runs a multibillion-dollar company.
On AGI — Artificial general intelligence has already been achieved, Ghodsi says. To justify this provocative statement, he casts his mind back to his experience working in a computer science lab two decades ago, discussing in vaunted terms with colleagues what AGI might look like: it would be able to talk, and reason, and spot patterns in huge quantities of data. “Now that we have it, it's kind of like, never meet your heroes,” Ghodsi says with a laugh. “It's just like, okay, that's not that impressive.”
Okay, but — Ghodsi has good reason to make this argument. Although OpenAI is one of his largest customers, Databricks’ bread and butter comes from the long tail of more normal companies that aren’t pursuing AGI, but simply want to use existing AI to do things with their data. In Ghodsi’s telling, Databricks is capitalizing on the size of this opportunity. “If all AI progress was frozen today, I think we have what we need to proceed with what we are doing,” Ghodsi says. “Not trying to build super-God… We're much more focused on: how can we make AI useful today in organizations?”
On AI agents —“Agents” was the buzzword of 2025 that never really delivered. By all means, AI improved radically this year, including by gaining new abilities to go and carry out web searches, or modify and run code. But big AI models still face reliability challenges that limit the length of time they can spend running autonomously, and we don’t have full-fledged AI coworkers yet. Ghodsi says Databricks is working on a solution to this problem: helping companies train smaller, laser-focused agents, using their own data. Those models end up being both cheaper to run and more reliable for specific tasks than frontier AI models like ChatGPT or Claude. “We can give you a good quality on the specific task, because we're cheating and we're doing boring AI, focusing just on specific tasks that you want help with,” Ghodsi says.
What to Know: AI private equity is here
For decades, big private equity companies have rinsed and repeated a profitable strategy: buy a struggling firm, trim its expenses by firing staff or modernizing business practices, and then sell it, before moving on to the next.
It was only a matter of time before somebody modified that strategy for the age of AI. OpenAI announced on Monday it had taken a stake in Thrive Holdings, a company set up earlier this year by Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital, which has a plan to buy and turn around struggling companies by enhancing their productivity with AI.
Traditional private equity has been good for C-suite executives, but less so for the average worker. Many employees at PE-acquired companies complain of their new bosses making decisions that might boost balance sheet numbers in the short term but make no long-term sense, or paying themselves large bonuses while firing staff down to a skeleton crew.
Now it seems OpenAI will be directly involved in a company following in the footsteps of this grand tradition.
AI in Action
DeepSeek released a new version of its V3 model on Monday, which, according to some benchmarks, is on par with GPT-5 and Gemini 3.0 Pro. Expect as a result more hand-wringing in Washington and Silicon Valley about the degree to which Chinese AI is catching up to its American rival.
In a bold assertion at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia + Technology Conference, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi claimed that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is already a reality, despite Silicon Valley's ongoing hesitation to accept this fact. Ghodsi remarked that current AI chatbots fulfill the criteria for AGI—defined as AI capable of human-like reasoning—according to standards established a decade ago.
"Everyone would agree, but we keep shifting the goalposts," Ghodsi stated during the discussion, which was made public recently. He pointed out that instead of recognizing this achievement, the focus has transitioned to a more ambitious goal: superintelligence, which would surpass human reasoning capabilities. Ghodsi expressed concern that the industry's obsession with superintelligence is misguided, arguing that businesses should prioritize creating systems that can automate tasks effectively rather than striving to outsmart the best human intellects.
He emphasized that AGI already possesses the necessary capabilities for automation and developing intelligent agents, adding, "We just need to focus on the routine tasks."
Databricks, headquartered in San Francisco, recently secured $1 billion in funding, bringing its valuation to over $100 billion. During the conference, Ghodsi noted that the rapid advancements in AI models appear to have plateaued. He explained that the scaling laws that have driven AI progress in recent years have reached a halt, with newer iterations such as OpenAI's GPT-5 and Anthropic's Claude 4 failing to deliver significant enhancements. "Extracting value from the next large pre-trained model is becoming increasingly challenging," he remarked.
Ghodsi's comments emerge amid a divide in the tech sector regarding the pursuit of artificial superintelligence. Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, recently labeled superintelligence as an "anti-goal" on the "Silicon Valley Girl Podcast." He expressed skepticism about the positive implications of such an advancement, underscoring the difficulty of aligning superintelligence with human values.
Conversely, other industry leaders remain committed to the quest for superintelligence. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, has stated that the company is focused on this goal rather than stopping at AGI, envisioning superintelligent tools that could revolutionize scientific discovery and innovation. Altman speculated in a September interview that he would be surprised if the industry had not achieved superintelligence by 2030.
Similarly, Demis Hassabis, co-founder of Google DeepMind, projected a timeline for AGI's emergence within the next five to ten years, envisioning a future where AI systems possess a profound and nuanced understanding of the world, seamlessly integrated into daily life.
Key Insight:
Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi asserted that artificial general intelligence (AGI) already exists, suggesting the industry has simply moved the goalposts on what defines AGI. Speaking at Goldman Sachs’ September 10 conference, he noted that recent AI models like OpenAI’s GPT-5 and Anthropic’s Claude 4 are delivering diminishing returns, signaling that scaling laws have hit a wall. Databricks recently exceeded $4 billion in revenue run rate with AI products crossing $1 billion, highlighting the company’s significant growth alongside a valuation surpassing $100 billion, with talks underway to raise funds valuing it over $130 billion.
Background:
The tech industry remains divided on the pursuit of superintelligence. While Databricks focuses on practical AI applications, leaders like Microsoft’s Mustafa Suleyman caution against pursuing artificial superintelligence, calling it an “anti-goal.” Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expects superintelligence by 2030, and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis forecasts AGI arrival within five to ten years. This split underscores contrasting visions on AI’s future direction amid rapid advances and growing market valuations.
Databricks CEO says the industry has already achieved AGI — AI that can reason like a human.
Silicon Valley invented superintelligence to raise the bar, Ali Ghodsi said.
But the fixation with superintelligence is "misdirected," and AGI is good enough for companies, he said.
Databricks CEO says we already have artificial general intelligence. Silicon Valley just refuses to admit it.
Ali Ghodsi said at Goldman Sachs' Communicopia + Technology Conference in September that AI chatbots already meet the definition of AGI — AI that can reason like a human — that researchers used a decade ago.
"Everybody would say yes, but we kept moving the goalposts," Ghodsi said in the discussion, which was published Tuesday.
"Since we kind of achieved it, let's come up with something even bigger," he added, referring to the push toward superintelligence — AI that can reason far smarter than humans.
Ghodsi, who holds a doctorate in computer science, said the industry's goal of superintelligence is nowhere close using today's techniques. He also said the fixation with superintelligence is "misdirected," adding that building systems to outsmart the world's brightest minds isn't what companies actually need.
AGI "has everything we need to be able to automate and build the agents," he said. "We just need to do the boring work," he added.
San Francisco-based Databricks raised $1 billion in September, which valued the company at over $100 billion.
Ghodsi said at the conference that the era of giant leaps from AI models has slowed. The scaling laws that powered the last several years of AI progress have clearly "come to a stop," and newer systems like OpenAI's GPT-5 and Anthropic's Claude 4 aren't delivering massive improvements.
"It's getting harder and harder to get value out of the next pre-trained giant model," he said.
The debate on superintelligence
Ghodsi's comments come as the industry splits over whether building artificial superintelligence is even desirable.
Microsoft AI CEO said on an episode of the "Silicon Valley Girl Podcast" published Saturday that artificial superintelligence should be treated as an "anti-goal."
Superintelligence "doesn't feel like a positive vision of the future," said Mustafa Suleyman. "It would be very hard to contain something like that or align it to our values."
Suleyman, who cofounded DeepMind before moving to Microsoft, said his team is instead aiming for what he calls "humanist superintelligence" — one that is grounded in human interest and values.
Other tech leaders are determined to achieve superintelligence.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said earlier this year that the company is building toward superintelligence, not stopping at AGI.
"Superintelligent tools could massively accelerate scientific discovery and innovation well beyond what we are capable of doing on our own, and in turn massively increase abundance and prosperity," Altman said in January.
Altman said in an interview in September that he would be very surprised if the industry had not reached superintelligence by 2030. Altman has long described AGI as OpenAI's central mission.
Google DeepMind's cofounder, Demis Hassabis, has put forward a similar timeline. He said in April that AGI could arrive "in the next five to 10 years," describing a future where AI systems understand the world "in very nuanced and deep ways" and are woven into everyday life.
Data analytics firm Databricks is reportedly hoping to become a $100 billion company.
The business is finalizing a funding round that would give it that valuation, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (Aug. 19), citing unnamed sources. Venture capital firm Thrive Capital is expected to co-lead the round, with Andreessen Horowitz also planning to invest.
Databricks, which provides software that helps businesses analyze datasets, has grown as the artificial intelligence industry has blossomed, the report said. The company was valued at $62 billion following another funding round earlier this year.
The company will use its new capital to compete in the race to attract AI talent, CEO Ali Ghodsi said, per the report. Databricks wasn’t planning another funding effort so soon, but prospective investors have been in touch daily.
The funding round will also help Databricks postpone plans to go public, the report said.
“The finance team tells me to not use this term, but I think Databricks has a shot to be a trillion-dollar company,” Ghodsi said, per the report. “But we have a lot of work ahead of us to get there.”
Databricks said in June that it projects that its data warehousing business will nearly double in size this year. A company spokesperson said Databricks expects a $1 billion revenue run rate for Databricks SQL by the close of its fiscal year in January 2026, compared to a $600 million run rate in December 2024.
Also in June, PYMNTS wrote about the challenges facing companies such as Databricks and Snowflake. When these firms rose to prominence, their success was bolstered by the growth of digital-first businesses, startups or cloud-native unicorns, which required scalable, agile infrastructure to drive their growth.
“Cloud data warehouses and platforms were the answer, offering a way to store, manage and analyze data without the burdens of traditional IT infrastructure,” a June 11 report said. “However, as these cloud providers set their sights on the next phase of growth by targeting large, multinational enterprises with legacy systems, a different picture is emerging, one centered around capital budgets for mainframe modernization, enterprise resource planning (ERP) upgrade timelines and multiyear IT strategic plans.”
Financial filings and statements from the top cloud providers about their deal plans show that digital transformation in the enterprise space is a marathon, not a sprint.
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Databricks CEO says AGI is already here — and Silicon Valley just keeps moving the goalposts
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Databricks CEO claims AGI exists, industry moved goalposts
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Databricks Targets $100 Billion Valuation in New Funding Round