ClickHouse
Open-source database company that runs fast real-time analytics on huge data volumes.
The call
ClickHouse sits underneath the AI boom as infrastructure, not in its crosshairs, while its real fight is stopping Snowflake and Databricks from winning back workloads on price and speed.
ClickHouse is software that companies use to search through and make sense of enormous databases very quickly, without waiting for answers. It is hard to replace because it is deeply woven into how big companies like OpenAI and Anthropic run their work, it processes data faster than competitors through a special technique called vectorized execution, and many thousands of developers have built on top of it over years. The main threat would be if Snowflake or Databricks actually persuade large customers to switch away from ClickHouse to their own real-time search tools, though right now these companies have business reasons not to compete directly on price or speed.
Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. OpenAI and Anthropic run on ClickHouse as customers, and AI copilots for SQL sit on top of it, adding demand rather than replacing it. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Snowflake and Databricks. Both publish counter-benchmarks and add real-time features, but neither has shipped a matching engine or won back actual customer workloads yet. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Deep workflow lock-in from petabyte-scale deployments and 100,000+ open source developers makes ripping ClickHouse out costly and risky.
What would change this call
Snowflake or Databricks announces a real-time OLAP engine and publicly names won migrations from ClickHouse. Would show incumbents can match price-performance and pull workloads back.
ClickHouse files an S-1 or confirms IPO timing. Would show revenue growth and metrics are strong enough to face public-market scrutiny.
ClickHouse Cloud y/y growth rate reported in future funding or earnings updates. Would show whether the 300%+ growth pace sustains or decelerates, affecting valuation support.
ClickHouse files an S-1 or confirms IPO timing. Would show revenue growth and metrics are strong enough to face public-market scrutiny.
ClickHouse Cloud y/y growth rate reported in future funding or earnings updates. Would show whether the 300%+ growth pace sustains or decelerates, affecting valuation support.
Key numbers
- $250M ARR, tripled year over year
- $15B valuation on $400M Series D
- 4,000+ total customers
Named risks
- $15B Series D values ClickHouse at roughly 60x ARR, requiring sustained hypergrowth to justify.
- Five acquisitions since 2022 (PeerDB, HyperDX, LibreChat, Langfuse, Arctype) create product integration execution risk.
- Employee sentiment reported as declining as of December 2025 despite rapid headcount growth.
- Snowflake and Databricks publishing counter-benchmarks that could erode the cost-performance narrative.
- Nebius Group's sub-30% ownership stake could create overhang around a future IPO event.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Snowflake | contesting | ClickHouse cites Appcues moving 1.31 PB/410B events off Snowflake, vendor case study, June 26, 2026 |
| Databricks | contesting | ClickHouse publishes cost-performance benchmarks vs Databricks amid $250M ARR run rate, May 2026 |
| Apache Druid and Apache Pinot | gaining on | ClickHouse cited as leading real-time OLAP alternative in 2026 comparisons, signoz.io, June 21, 2026 |
Questions people ask
- Is ClickHouse profitable in 2026?
- No profitability figure has been disclosed. ClickHouse reported annualized revenue tripling year-over-year to $250M as of May 27, 2026, per TechCrunch, but the company has not published net income or margin data, and it remains privately held with an active IPO discussion.
- Who owns ClickHouse?
- ClickHouse, Inc. is privately held. Nebius Group N.V. (formerly Yandex N.V.), the company that spun it out in 2021, owns less than 30% following Nebius's 2024 restructuring. The rest is held by VCs including Dragoneer, Bessemer, Index, Lightspeed, Khosla, GIC, and T. Rowe Price.
- Could AI replace ClickHouse?
- Unlikely to displace it directly. OpenAI and Anthropic run their own infrastructure on ClickHouse and were showcased as customers at its May 2025 Open House conference. AI copilots automate query-writing and triage on top of ClickHouse, increasing usage rather than substituting for its columnar database engine.
- Who is ClickHouse's biggest competitor?
- Snowflake and Databricks are the closest incumbent rivals. ClickHouse markets itself on cost-performance against both, citing cases like Appcues migrating a 1.31 petabyte, 410 billion event workload from Snowflake to ClickHouse Cloud (vendor case study, published June 26, 2026).
- How much money has ClickHouse raised?
- ClickHouse has raised over $1 billion cumulatively, including a $350M Series C at a $6.35B valuation (May 2025), a $100M debt facility from Stifel and Goldman Sachs (May 2025), and a $400M Series D at a $15B valuation led by Dragoneer (announced January 16, 2026).
- Will ClickHouse go public?
- ClickHouse has not filed an IPO. TechCrunch reported on May 27, 2026 that leadership, including co-founder Yury Izrailevsky, is charting a path toward an IPO, citing $250M ARR and a favorable 2026 listing window following SpaceX's debut.
Timeline
- 2026-06-08ClickHouse crosses 4,000 customers, adds 1,000+ net-new in one quarter, expands global GTM leadership
- 2026-01-16$400M Series D led by Dragoneer at $15B valuation; acquires Langfuse
- 2025-07-07Kevin Egan joins as first CRO; ClickHouse Cloud reported at 300%+ growth, 2,000+ customers
- 2025-05-29$350M Series C led by Khosla Ventures at $6.35B valuation; $100M debt facility from Stifel and Goldman Sachs
- 2025-03-13Acquires HyperDX, later forming ClickStack observability stack
- 2024Yandex N.V. restructures into Nebius Group, retaining under 30% of ClickHouse
- 2021-09ClickHouse Inc. incorporated in Delaware after spinning out of Yandex
- 2016-06ClickHouse database open-sourced under Apache 2.0 license
- 2012ClickHouse launched to production inside Yandex.Metrica
- 2009ClickHouse database originated inside Yandex
Revision history
21 July 2026
First assessed. Hard to displace. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- ClickHouse triples annualized revenue to $250M, charting a path toward an IPO (2026-05-27)
- ClickHouse appoints new leader for Asia Pacific and expands global go-to-market leadership team (2026-06-08)
- Kevin Egan joins ClickHouse as Chief Revenue Officer to accelerate growth (2025-07-07)
- ClickHouse valued at $15 billion as database analytics firm rides AI wave (2026-01-16)
- ClickHouse lands $15 billion valuation in AI database race
- ClickHouse welcomes Langfuse (2026-07-14)
- ClickHouse Acquires HyperDX (2025-03-13)
- ClickHouse Number of Employees 2026 (2026-06-29)
- ClickHouse (2026-07-16)
- The end-to-end cost-performance of real-time analytics (2026-06-26)
- Khosla-Led Deal Values Data Startup ClickHouse at $6.35 Billion (2025-05-29)
- Usage-Based Pricing Delivers a Budget-Friendly Data Cloud (2024-06-30)