Databricks has agreed to acquire Panther Labs for an undisclosed price to expand the data company's footprint in cybersecurity.

The San Francisco-based company positioned the deal as a step toward competing with larger rivals CrowdStrike and Splunk, Reuters reported.

Panther Labs was last valued at $1.4 billion after a $120 million Series B round in 2021. The startup's product pulls security-relevant data streams into a single place so software "agents" can act on threats with minimal human involvement as attack volume rises alongside broader AI adoption.

At Databricks' Data + AI Summit in San Francisco, CEO Ali Ghodsi argued that AI has accelerated how quickly attackers can turn software flaws into real intrusions and said older alert-and-log workflows were "dead."

"If they’re going to attack you with agents, you have to defend with agents," Ghodsi told Reuters. "You have to fight fire with fire."

Databricks Is Deal Hungry

This is Databricks’ third acquisition in the cybersecurity space. In March 2025, the company acquired Antimatter, a security startup that specializes in data protection, authorization, and secure governance for AI agents. The transaction was kept confidential until March 2026, when Databricks launched its AI-powered security product, Lakewatch,

That same month, Databricks also bought SiftD.ai, an early-stage security startup focused on agentic AI-human collaboration tools and deep expertise in large-scale detection engineering. Financial terms for either deal were not disclosed. 

Databricks is reportedly considering a new funding round that could begin within the next month, potentially boosting its valuation to between $165 billion and $175 billion.

The new funding round might kick off within the coming month. Despite operating for 13 years, Databricks has repeatedly delayed an IPO, choosing instead to raise private funding and facilitate secondary share sales. The terms of its latest funding round are still being finalized, and it remains unclear whether the new capital will be included in the company's valuation, as per the report.

Ghodsi told investors that the company remains on track for an IPO, potentially as early as next year.

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