Salesforce to invest $15 billion in San Francisco to advance AI

Software elephantine Salesforce is readying to put $15 cardinal successful San Francisco implicit the adjacent 5 years to fortify the city’s dominance successful artificial intelligence.

“This $15 cardinal concern reflects our heavy committedness to our hometown — advancing AI innovation, creating jobs, and helping companies and our communities thrive successful this unthinkable caller era,” said Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff successful a statement.

The backing is the latest illustration of however the frenzy astir artificial quality has been shining a spotlight connected San Francisco, the location of large tech companies specified arsenic Salesforce and ChatGPT shaper OpenAI.

Benioff’s remarks besides came up of the company’s Dreamforce league successful San Francisco, an lawsuit that runs done Thursday.

The league is expected to bring astir 50,000 radical to the city, make $130 cardinal successful gross for San Francisco and make 35,000 section jobs, Salesforce said successful a quality merchandise connected Monday.

Last week, Benioff besides told the New York Times helium thought Trump should nonstop the National Guard to assistance trim transgression successful San Francisco aft the president said Democrats had “destroyed” the city.

Salesforce’s multibillion-dollar concern volition spell toward a caller hub connected the company’s San Francisco field that volition enactment workforce improvement and training.

On societal media level X, Benioff besides posted that the concern volition assistance “build a greater, safer metropolis for everyone.”

Salesforce, a level that helps businesses negociate lawsuit information and way sales, is besides making different commitments to San Francisco arsenic the contention to predominate AI heats up.

On Monday, the institution besides announced a $100-million concern successful the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and a $39-million concern to enactment AI acquisition and readiness, including successful the San Francisco Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District.

Salesforce has besides been promoting the usage of “AI agents” that are susceptible of proactively doing enactment without changeless input from a human. Some tasks agents tin implicit see responding to lawsuit questions and generating selling materials.

The emergence of artificial quality has besides been fueling anxiousness astir whether exertion volition automate definite jobs, including successful lawsuit work and bundle engineering, amid occupation cuts.

In September, Benioff said his institution was capable to shrink the fig of radical successful enactment roles from 9,000 to 5,000 due to the fact that AI agents are helping to automate definite tasks. He besides antecedently said AI is doing 30% to 50% of the company’s work.

In July, the Brookings Institution called the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas “superstars” erstwhile it comes to AI readiness. The study noted though that much AI-ready metro areas person to beryllium wary astir AI replacing jobs arsenic exertion reshapes the mode radical work.

The Washington, D.C., deliberation vessel examined information specified arsenic task superior funding, AI occupation postings and the fig of machine subject grade holders successful definite areas.