According to reports, Meta has signs on as an investor for data analytics software startup Databricks.

Meta is a key player in artificial intelligence since it trains the well-known Llama open-source long language models, or LLMs, on which Databricks builds.

“Databricks works closely with Meta’s Llama team,” says the startup’s co-founder and CEO, Ali Ghodsi.

The relationship goes up to Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“We’ve discussed open-source software in the past, and he cares a lot about open-source models and Llama,” Ali says.

Compared to its tech peers Alphabet and Microsoft, Meta does not invest in nearly as many startups.

However, Databricks is a rapidly expanding business headed for a significant IPO. Meta made one of the biggest venture capital investments in history, a $10 billion round for Databricks. As of today, Databricks has raised $14 billion in venture capital.

The new money will go toward global expansion and liquidity for current and former employees.

Databricks also announced a $5.25 billion credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase.

“Credit can be a much better option than spending with stock and diluting existing shareholders, even with a high interest rate,” adds Ali.

The bank's money enabled Databricks last year to train its own open-source LLM, DBRX, at a cost of about $10 million. DBRX performed better than Meta’s Llama and other alternatives in some tests at the time, but other models quickly surpassed it.

“That’s one reason it was reasonable for Databricks to ally itself with the most prominent open model builder. Meta has plenty of money to spend on capital expenditures to train models, and Databricks can use its money in other ways,” says Ali.

San Francisco-based Databricks now employs 8,000 people. Ghodsi said it would not be “a huge surprise to me if we were public” a year from now.

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, participated in the $10 billion round alongside Meta.

Ali says, “Databricks is open to allowing its software to run on data centers from major operators in the Middle East. Today, it’s only available through the Amazon, Google, and Microsoft clouds.”