Good morning. In a change of pace, we're marking our fifth annual Coins2Day Brainstorm AI event, which wrapped up yesterday in San Francisco.
TL;DR
- Databricks aims for a $1 trillion valuation by expanding into transactional databases, AI agents, and software solutions.
- CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator views the company's IPO as successful despite stock volatility, driven by a debt-intensive data center strategy.
- Arm CEO Rene Haas predicts physical AI robots will automate significant manufacturing tasks within five to ten years.
Here are three additional key takeaways from the initial two days of our conference, alongside the day's technology updates in “More tech.” —Andrew Nusca
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The path for Databricks to reach a $1 trillion valuation
Databricks' chief executive and co-founder, Ali Ghodsi, is wagering that his privately owned venture can become the next entity to achieve a valuation of one trillion dollars, a status currently held only by the planet's largest technology firms.
At Coins2Day Brainstorm AI in San Francisco on Tuesday, he explained how it would unfold, detailing a “trifecta” of expansion zones to spark the enterprise's subsequent phase of advancement.
The first is entering the transactional database market, the traditional territory of large enterprise players like Oracle, which Ghodsi said has remained largely “the same for 40 years.”
The second expansion focus is Agent Bricks, Databricks' system for creating AI agents that interact with private company information.
“It’s a commodity now to have AI that has general knowledge,” Ghodsi said, but “it’s very elusive to get AI that really works and understands that proprietary data that’s inside the enterprise.”
Lastly, the third expansion domain centers on creating software solutions utilizing this foundation, where programmers employ AI utilities to rapidly develop programs that operate on Lakebase and are subsequently driven by AI agents.
When might Databricks attain its trillion-dollar goal? A potential IPO is one piece of the puzzle.
“We will go public at some point,” he said, adding that a 2026 debut would “maybe” happen. “But to us, it’s not a really big deal.” —Beatrice Nolan
Even with fluctuating share prices, CoreWeave's initial public offering was 'a tremendous triumph.'
CoreWeave has experienced significant stock price volatility, with its shares now trading at a 52% discount from their peak following the initial public offering, and has often been a subject of discussion among market analysts.
However, Chief Executive Officer Michael Intrator states that the firm's transition to public trading has been “incredibly successful”—and he accepts the public's varied responses calmly.
“When you introduce new models, introduce a new way of doing business, disrupt what has been a static environment, it’s going to take some people some time,” Intrator said Tuesday at Coins2Day Brainstorm AI in San Francisco.
But more people are beginning to understand CoreWeave’s business model, he added.
Since its introduction eight months ago, CoreWeave, which set its IPO price at $40 per share, has seen considerable volatility in its stock value. The share's closing price on Tuesday, recorded at $90.66, still represents a significant increase over its initial public offering cost.
As Coins2Day reported last monthCoreWeave's swift ascent has been propelled by a bold, debt-intensive approach to quickly establish data centers for AI clients.
Currently, the gamble continues to be successful. In its financial report for the third quarter, issued in November, the firm indicated that its projected income from future contracts almost doubled within a three-month period—reaching $55.6 billion from $30 billion—which demonstrates substantial, enduring agreements from prominent customers. Both profitability and sales figures surpassed the projections made by financial analysts.
“I feel like it’s incumbent on CoreWeave to introduce a new business model on how the cloud is going to be built and run,” Intrator said. “And that’s what we’re doing.” —Sharon Goldman
Arm's chief executive stated that physical AI robots are poised to automate 'significant portions' of manufacturing operations.
The chief executive of Arm, Rene Haas, forecasts that AI-driven humanoid robots may assume substantial portions of manufacturing tasks in the coming five to 10 years, thereby revolutionizing the industrial sector.
A primary driver for integrating humanoid robots into manufacturing settings is their superiority compared to current robotic arms and other automated equipment, according to Haas. Said Monday at Coins2Day Brainstorm AI in San Francisco.
Traditional factory robots are purpose-built machines designed for a single task, with both hardware and software optimized for that specific function. General-purpose humanoid robots, by contrast, combined with increasingly sophisticated “physical AI” that helps navigate the real world, will be able to take on different jobs on the fly with quick modifications to their instructions.
“I think in the next five years, you’re going to see large sections of factory work replaced by robots,” Haas said, “and part of the reason for that is that these physical AI robots can be reprogrammed into different tasks.”
He added: “One of the issues you’d had with factory robots in the past is that if it was a pick and place machine for a factory, they’re just optimized for one task—the software was for one task, the hardware is for one task. Now, if you design a general-purpose humanoid that the software is all AI and it learns by doing, it’s going to completely replace a large set of factory workers.”
As artificial intelligence and robots become more common in companies, what will be the impact on employees and the wider employment landscape? Haas offered no specifics, but indicated that extensive use of physical AI might contribute to a more equitable global competitive arena.
“Physical AI,” he said, “will be a great enabler.” —Beatrice Nolan
More tech
—SpaceX IPO prepares for liftoff. A $30+ billion fundraise at a $1.5 trillion valuation is reportedly coming in “mid-to-late 2026.”
—Australia social media ban takes effect. Platforms must remove under-16 users or risk fines of up to AU$49.5 million.
—Instacart tests user-based pricing. Same item, same store, same time, different prices.
—China won’t make Nvidia H200 access easy, even if the U.S. Allows sales of it.
—OpenAI hires Denise Dresser. The Slack CEO will become OpenAI’s chief revenue officer.
—From supersonic planes to cloud computing. Boom repurposes its natural gas turbine for AI data centers.
—Nvidia CEO reportedly told Trump: We’ll lose the global AI race if we don’t pre-empt state AI regulations.
