Welcome to the latest edition of the World of DaaS Roundup.
Governments are debating AI. Companies are operationalizing it.
And increasingly, the difference comes down to data.
📰 News & Reads
ECB’s Lagarde calls for Cold War-style global data governance to prevent AI triggered financial crises.
Speaking in Venice today, Lagarde warned AI poses systemic risks to financial stability and called for international governance modeled on nuclear non-proliferation treaties. The ECB has already stress-tested 109 banks against AI-powered cyberattacks.
Databricks is set to surpass Snowflake in scale for the first time — and the data platform war is no longer about warehouses.
Databricks exits H1 FY2027 at $6.9B ARR growing 65% YoY, while Snowflake runs at $5.5B growing 32%. The battle has shifted from architecture to who controls the data layer for agentic AI workloads.
UK’s CMA forces Google to let users port their search data to third parties — a landmark shift in data portability rights.
Britain's competition watchdog imposed two new requirements on Google: transparent search ranking criteria and full search data portability to authorized third parties. Google controls 90%+ of UK queries — regulators just opened that data to competition.
Data privacy is no longer a compliance cost — it’s a growth strategy.
For years companies treated data privacy as a defensive checkbox. New research challenges that assumption: companies with strong privacy practices consistently outperform on customer trust and purchase intent. Governing your data well isn't just risk management, it's competitive advantage.
🌐 WORLD OF DAAS SUMMIT 2026
3rd September 2026, Washington, D.C.
Our flagship summit will take place this September 3, bringing together a highly curated group of 200+ DaaS leaders for closed-door conversations, curated roundtables, and high-signal networking.
Apply to become a World of DaaS Founding Member and secure your summit ticket for $500.
Hope to see you there.
🎙️ The Latest World Of DaaS Podcast
Jordan Hauer, Founder & CEO of Amass Insights, has spent more than a decade helping investment firms discover, evaluate and source datasets. In this episode he maps where the alternative data market stands in 2026 — from the early days of scarce, highly differentiated datasets to today's world of abundant data and rapidly advancing AI tools.
In this episode, they discuss:
Which datasets are seeing the strongest demand from investment firms in 2026.
How funds evaluate and source new data — and why the bar keeps rising.
Why sales cycles remain stubbornly long despite improvements in the market.
The role of trials, pricing, and backtesting in the data buying process.
The most common mistakes data providers make when trying to sell to institutional buyers.
An Unexpected Data Read For Today.
Messi scored a hat-trick against Algeria this week. But according to Northeastern University's Network Science Institute, it was statistically almost inevitable.
Using StatsBomb real-time data, their team has been mapping every World Cup match and finding that each team's style is a data signature. Argentina's dependency on Messi. Spain's attacks through Yamal and Williams. Portugal's midfield architecture. The most iconic plays in football aren't random. They're already in the data.
Photo: @kevinjimenezcrc
Where Data Meets Art
Tomokazu Matsuyama at Columbus Circle [Photo: Alyssa Ki/courtesy ARTS 14C]
23 artists. 5 boroughs. One soccer ball each.
As the World Cup takes over New York and New Jersey, ARTS 14C launched The Art of the Game, a public sculpture installation across both states featuring works by Hank Willis Thomas, Futura 2000, and 21 other internationally renowned artists. Each figure holds a six-foot steel soccer ball rendered in their signature style, transforming match data, cultural identity, and city landmarks into public art.
Art and sports have always generated the same thing: data about what it means to be human together.
🔥 In Case You Missed It…
M&A Funding Roundup
Salesforce acquired Fin for $3.6B to scale its AI agent platform on enterprise data.
Octus acquired LevPro to expand its credit data intelligence platform.
Chronograph raised $143M from Sixth Street Growth to scale its portfolio monitoring and data analytics platform.
Upriver raised $14M Seed led by Valley Capital Partners and Hetz Ventures for AI data engineering infrastructure.
💼 World Of DaaS Job Board
The World of DaaS job board highlights opportunities from members across our community
Data Scientist - Platform Infrastructure, TikTok (Los Angeles)
VP of Data and Technology Solutions, United Talent Agency
Staff Data Engineer, Crunchyroll
Looking to showcase an open role?
Apply to join and get access to exclusive perks including job board postings, curated introductions, private events, and more.
🔍 Become a World of DaaS Member
We’re headed back to D.C. next September for our flagship event, bringing together 200+ DaaS leaders for a day of candid conversations, curated roundtables, and private networking experiences. Join the leaders shaping the future of data.
Apply to become a World of DaaS Founding Member and secure your summit ticket for just $500.
