Databricks, Microsoft Extend Partnership Into the 2030s as Enterprise AI Adoption Accelerates

Databricks and Microsoft have extended their strategic partnership, taking the agreement, which began nearly a decade ago, into the 2030s.

Under the arrangement, Databricks will increase its use of Azure Databricks to run its core business operations and build its lakehouse. The company will also expand its use of Azure Cobalt, Microsoft's Arm-based infrastructure, moving from Cobalt 100 to Cobalt 200, which Microsoft claims improves performance by up to 50% and includes memory encryption by default.

Microsoft, in turn, will continue to integrate the Databricks Data and AI Platform across its product range, bringing tools such as Genie, Databricks' AI co-worker, into customer workflows across Microsoft 365, Teams, Copilot, Power BI, Power Platform, Microsoft Purview, and Microsoft Foundry.

Ali Ghodsi, Co-founder and CEO of Databricks, said that the partnership is now at its strongest. "For nearly a decade, Databricks and Microsoft have helped enterprises innovate with data and AI," he said in a statement. 

He added that Genie and Unity AI Gateway are now built into Microsoft's products, letting customers unify their data and ground AI systems in business knowledge, while managing costs and governance as they scale their use of agents and models.

Judson Althoff, chief executive of Microsoft's commercial business, added that the companies are working to connect data, AI, and business context so that firms can make decisions faster and measure the results. He noted that Databricks' expanded use of Azure Databricks and Cobalt-based infrastructure should give customers more performance, efficiency and scale for demanding workloads, along with confidence in a platform already used at enterprise scale.

According to the companies, customers including Banco Bradesco, the Cincinnati Reds, Electrolux, SMBC, and Unilever already run workloads on Azure Databricks.

Databricks says more than 20,000 organisations, including AT&T, Bayer, BMW Group, HSBC, and T-Mobile, use its Data and AI Platform, which includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog.