Scottish Mortgage a winner as Databricks' valuation hits $100bn

Analytics company Databricks is raising money at a valuation of $100bn, which is a 60% uplift to its December 2024 valuation.

A 60% valuation uplift for Databricks, the unlisted data and AI infrastructure specialist, will spell good news for Scottish Mortgage’s (SMT ) portfolio of private investments.

Databricks is raising money at a valuation of $100bn (£74bn), up from its previous valuation of $62bn in December 2024. According to Reuters, the company has signed a term sheet for a late-stage funding round which would make it one of the world’s most valuable AI companies. 

It is understood to be seeking more than $1bn from existing investors Thrive Capital, Insight Partners and US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to build databases for ‘AI agents’, which use software systems to perform tasks, instead of humans.

This funding round is likely to delay Databricks’ plans to IPO.

Deutsche Numis analyst Ewan Lovett-Turner estimates the valuation uplift would add around 42 basis points to Scottish Mortgage’s net asset value (NAV). Deutsche Numis is the joint broker to Scottish Mortgage.

Databricks is also held by Schiehallion (MNTN ), Baillie Gifford’s private equity fund, and Baillie Gifford US Growth (USA ).

Lovett-Turner said Databricks’ revised vlauation is ‘another positive development’ for SMT’s private portoflio, which has already benefited from upliftsin the value of Elon Musk’s rocket ship company SpaceX - which is a Baillie Gifford darling, and payment processing platform Stripe. 

Scottish Mortgage’s shares are up 27.6% over the past three years, which compares to a 30% gain by the average trust in the AIC’s global sector. It currently trades at a 9.7% discount to NAV, which Lovett-Turner said represents ‘an excellent entry point for an innovative, differentiated portfolio of growth companies’ with the discounted supported by an ongoing buyback programme.