Databricks and OpenAI Partner to Bring Frontier AI to Enterprises with $100M Deal

Databricks and OpenAI today announced a $100 million multi-year partnership to make OpenAI’s models natively available within the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform and its flagship AI product, Agent Bricks. The collaboration gives Databricks’ 20,000+ customers seamless access to OpenAI’s latest models, including GPT-5, to build, evaluate, and scale production-ready AI agents directly on governed enterprise data.

Businesses increasingly demand AI agents that can securely analyze enterprise data, automate workflows, and deliver reliable insights. By integrating OpenAI models within Databricks, enterprises can now build high-quality AI apps and agents without data movement, while benefiting from high-capacity processing. Customers are already using the platform to detect fraud, accelerate drug discovery, optimize energy use, and speed up application development.

Executive Quotes:

● “This partnership makes it easier for enterprises to securely leverage their data and OpenAI models at scale with best-in-class governance and performance,” said Ali Ghodsi, Co-founder & CEO, Databricks.

● “Enterprise demand for frontier AI is accelerating. With Databricks, we’re bringing advanced models directly to secure enterprise data, simplifying deployment without sacrificing performance,” said Brad Lightcap, COO, OpenAI.

● “For Mastercard, this partnership provides trusted AI agents that deliver quality, scale, and security to make commerce smarter and safer,” said Greg Ulrich, Chief AI & Data Officer, Mastercard.

Partnership Highlights:

● Frontier Models on Enterprise Data – Direct access to OpenAI models via SQL or API.

● Dedicated High Capacity – Guaranteed large-scale processing of GPT-5 and other models.

● Production-Ready Agents – Agent Bricks enables evaluation, optimization, and deployment of domain-specific AI agents.

● Unified Governance – Built-in governance through Databricks Unity Catalog ensures compliance and responsible AI practices.

● Collaborative Innovation – Joint R&D teams from both companies will refine and optimize models for enterprise workloads.

This partnership builds on earlier collaboration, including OpenAI’s use of Databricks for AI data processing and Databricks’ early hosting of gpt-oss, OpenAI’s open-weight model.

Upcoming Event: Join Ali Ghodsi (Databricks CEO) and Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO) for “The Future of AI: Build Agents That Work”on November 11 (AMER) and November 12 (APJ/EMEA).