U.S.-based data and AI company Databricks is significantly expanding its footprint in Germany — with a new Frankfurt office, an enlarged Berlin R&D hub, and a training initiative targeting 50,000 professionals by 2028.
Data and AI platform company Databricks has announced plans to invest more than $400 million in Germany over the next three years. The commitment includes opening a new Frankfurt office, expanding an existing R&D hub in Berlin, and scaling up operations in Munich. Alongside the infrastructure build-out, Databricks aims to train approximately 50,000 professionals in Germany by 2028 across data engineering, analytics, machine learning, and generative AI.
Expanding Across Three Cities
The new Frankfurt office, located in the Frankfurt Global Tower in the heart of the city’s financial district, is designed to deepen ties with enterprise customers including Deutsche Börse Group, adidas, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche Holding Salzburg. It becomes the company’s fourth location in the DACH region alongside Berlin, Munich, and Zurich, where approximately 500 employees work across the area.
Berlin remains Databricks’ primary research and development site in the EMEA region. Expanded premises in the Mitte district will house growing product and engineering teams working on AI governance via Unity Catalog, as well as new feature development in Genie and Lakebase. Berlin-based customers include GetYourGuide, Parloa, and Zalando.
Two Core Products Drive the Expansion
Central to the investment is accelerating the adoption of two products: Lakebase, a serverless Postgres database built for AI agent workloads, and Genie, an AI agent that allows employees to query company data in natural language and receive immediately usable results.
Daniel Holz, VP Central Europe at Databricks, said: “Germany is home to some of the most innovative companies we are already supporting in building enterprise-grade AI applications and agents on top of their own data. By focusing on the introduction of Lakebase and Genie, we have a real opportunity to help them move forward faster.”
Training 50,000 Professionals by 2028
The training commitment responds to a documented skills shortage: according to Germany’s digital industry association Bitkom, only eight percent of German companies currently offer AI training, even though 80 percent view AI as the defining technology of the coming years. Databricks plans to address the gap through three channels: a University Alliance that embeds enterprise-grade AI curricula at partner institutions including the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück, Technische Hochschule Ulm, and Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg; self-paced digital learning paths available at no cost; and hands-on certification programs in which participants build production-ready AI agents.
“The right data and AI skills are essential for German companies of all sizes to scale AI and remain competitive at the European level,” Holz added.
Market Context
The announcement comes as 95 percent of German companies plan to invest in AI and machine learning over the next five years, according to Germany Trade & Invest data. Databricks positions its platform particularly for organizations that need to build AI capabilities on their own proprietary data — an approach that resonates in data-sensitive sectors such as financial services and automotive manufacturing. Three DACH-region AI Days, scheduled in Frankfurt, Lausanne, and Vienna this spring, will accompany the rollout.
Dr. Jakob Jung is Editor-in-Chief of Security Storage and Channel Germany. He has been working in IT journalism for more than 20 years. His career includes Computer Reseller News, Heise Resale, Informationweek, Techtarget (storage and data center) and ChannelBiz. He also freelances for numerous IT publications, including Computerwoche, Channelpartner, IT-Business, Storage-Insider and ZDnet. His main topics are channel, storage, security, data center, ERP and CRM.
Contact via Mail: jakob.jung@security-storage-und-channel-germany.de