Databricks is putting its recent $5 billion raise to work immediately. The data platform giant introduced Lakewatch, a new security product designed to handle Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) at scale. Lakewatch leverages AI agents powered by Anthropic's Claude to detect and investigate threats within massive datasets.

To build this capability, Databricks quietly acquired two startups. The first, Antimatter, closed last year but remained undisclosed until now. Founded by Andrew Krioukov, Antimatter developed a data control plane for deploying agents securely while protecting sensitive information. Krioukov now leads the Lakewatch team. The second acquisition, SiftD.ai, closed Monday. SiftD launched last November, offering an interactive notebook for human-agent collaboration. Co-founder Steve Zhang, ex-Splunk chief scientist, created the Search Processing Language.

While financial terms remain private, these moves signal a clear strategy for 2026. Antimatter brought intellectual property and a team under 50 people, while SiftD appears to be an acquihire focused on Zhang's expertise. Databricks confirmed both teams have joined the company.

A spokesperson indicated the company remains active in the market, aiming to close capability gaps quickly. For engineering teams managing production AI, Lakewatch represents a shift toward agent-specific security wrapped directly into the data platform. With AI agents handling critical workflows, securing the underlying data pipeline is no longer optional.

Source: TechCrunch