Cybersecurity company Rubrik announced Wednesday it has entered into an agreement to acquire artificial intelligence startup Predibase, a move aimed at helping enterprises overcome persistent barriers in deploying AI applications at scale. Sources familiar with the matter told CNBC the deal is valued between $100 million and $500 million.
The acquisition positions Rubrik, which went public last year with over $1 billion in annualized revenue, to capitalize on growing enterprise demand for AI tools while addressing what industry experts describe as a stubborn bottleneck preventing AI projects from reaching production.
Predibase, founded in 2021 by former Google and Uber AI technologists, has developed a platform that allows organizations to fine-tune open-source AI models for specific business applications12. The San Francisco-based company, which has raised over $28 million from venture firms Greylock and Felicis, claims its technology can reduce AI infrastructure costs by up to 80% while improving model accuracy34.
"We created Predibase to lift the barriers between an idea and production-ready AI," said Devvret Rishi, co-founder and CEO of Predibase1. The company's platform includes a proprietary post-training stack for customizing models and an optimized inference engine that delivers performance gains exceeding two times over standard implementations2.
Rubrik CEO Bipul Sinha said the acquisition represents a step toward becoming a multi-product company, expanding beyond the data backup and recovery services that built the company's $17.4 billion market capitalization56.
The acquisition targets what Gartner research identifies as a persistent industry problem: more than half of AI projects never reach production, with the average prototype-to-production journey taking eight months12. Common obstacles include high infrastructure costs, limited model accuracy, data governance hurdles, and difficulties accessing valuable enterprise data3.
Rubrik's existing partnerships with Amazon Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, and Google Agentspace will be expanded to include Predibase's capabilities45. The combination aims to provide what executives call "radical simplicity" in AI model deployment and data management65.
Rubrik shares rose 2.9% to $92.69 in morning trading following the announcement7. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, with Predibase expected to operate independently within Rubrik's structure8.
