The Great Data Closure: Why Databricks and Snowflake Are Hitting Their Ceiling

Data giants like Databricks and Snowflake are hitting a growth ceiling, as their core data business alone can no longer sustain their massive valuations and growth expectations. To continue its staggering financial rise, Databricks is aggressively expanding beyond data warehousing into new use cases, primarily AI and application development. This strategic pivot involves venture investments and new product lines designed to transform the company into a comprehensive "AI Cloud." However, this ambitious move is risky, pitting Databricks against specialized competitors and questioning whether its core data engineering audience will embrace these new, complex workflows.