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Is $1 billion a lot of money these days?

From TechCrunch

By Theresa Loconsolo, Anthony Ha, Maxwell Zeff, Kirsten Korosec

May 16, 2025

Is $1 billion a lot of money these days?

Is $1 billion a lot of money these days?
Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify

Databricks just snatched up another AI company.

This week, the data analytics giant announced a $1 billion acquisition of Neon, a startup building an open source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres. It’s the latest in a spree of high-profile buys, joining MosaicML and Tabular, as Databricks positions itself as the place to build, deploy, and scale AI-native applications. 

Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Max Zeff, and Anthony Ha unpack the Databricks-Neon deal, where Neon’s serverless Postgres tech fits into the larger vision, and whether $1 billion still counts as “a lot of money” these days (spoiler: Kirsten and Anthony are on the fence).

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

  • Chime’s long-awaited IPO plans and what the neobank’s S-1 did (and didn’t) reveal.
  • AWS entering a “strategic partnership” that could shake up cloud infrastructure, especially as the Middle East ramps up its AI ambitions.
  • The return of the web series. Yes, really. Short-form scripted content is back, and investors are placing big bets on nostalgic trend.

Equity will be back next week, so don’t miss it!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here.

View original article on techcrunch.com

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