Databricks said the alliance will run through the 2030s, with higher Azure and Azure Cobalt usage as Microsoft embeds more of the company’s AI tools across its products.
Microsoft and Databricks have expanded their strategic partnership in a deal that Databricks said will run through the 2030s, deepening the company’s use of Azure for core operations, analytics and AI workloads while extending Microsoft’s integration of Databricks tools across its product lineup. The move builds on a relationship that began in 2018 with Azure Databricks and adds a more explicit infrastructure commitment as Databricks increases use of Azure Cobalt, Microsoft’s Arm-based custom processors, for data-intensive and agentic AI workloads. Microsoft’s Commercial Business CEO Judson Althoff said customers would gain more performance, efficiency and scale from deeper investment in Azure Databricks and Cobalt-powered infrastructure. The partnership comes as enterprise AI adoption accelerates and underscores Databricks’ importance to Microsoft’s cloud business. Databricks said last week it approved a funding round valuing the company at $188 billion, expected to close later this summer, and said its platform is used by more than 20,000 organizations globally, including 70% of the Fortune 500.