Rubrik, a player in the data security field, blew up the news on Wednesday with its plans to purchase Predibase. Predibase, a startup powered by venture capital, assists firms to train and adjust open source AI modules to serve their specific needs. This move places Rubrik amongst the growing list of companies looking to enhance their AI capabilities through clever acquisitions.

While the exact terms of the deal are left to our imagination, CNBC hints at a price range between $100 million and $500 million - a pretty hefty sum. Rubrik played it coy though, keeping mum on the exact amount.

Predibase, which came into being in 2021, owes its existence to Devvret Rishi (the current skipper), Piero Molino (the science wiz), and Travis Addair (the tech titan). With over $28 million in venture capital to its name, the company boasts a repertoire featuring investments from Felicis, Greylock, and Sancus Ventures, among others.

The merging of Predibase into the Rubrik family promises a sped-up process of creating AI agents across multiple platforms including Amazon Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, and Google Agentspace. This knowledge is gleaned from a press release which goes further to say:

“Combining Predibase's abilities with data secure platforms like Rubrik will lead to groundbreaking transformations, creating responsible and leading-edge AI powered by trusted data,” - paean to the deal by Bipul Sinha, co-founder and chief head of Rubrik, in a blog post.

Further underlining this culture, a number of other tech firms including Salesforce, Snowflake, and Collibra, have embarked on acquisitions to strengthen their technology in the race to develop AI agents.

Rubrik, coming into existence in 2014, amasssed over $1.6 billion in venture capital from firms like Khosla Ventures, IVP, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others, before debuting in the public market in April 2024.