Salesforce Doubles Down on AI

Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of Salesforce, has expanded its AI-focused investment fund with an additional $500 million of capital, bringing the total capital allocated towards artificial intelligence to $1 billion in just 18 months.

Salesforce Ventures launched its first AI-focused fund in March 2023 with $250 million in capital to focus on generative AI opportunities. Just three months later, in June 2023, the venture group doubled the size of this AI Fund to $500 million. The group’s AI investments have included more than two dozen companies, such as Anthropic, Cohere, Runway, TogetherAI, Mistral AI, and Hugging Face.

Since its launch in 2009, Salesforce Ventures has invested in early and growth-stage companies that are developing cutting-edge enterprise technologies. The group provides both capital and strategic support to its portfolio companies and often connects them with Salesforce’s network of Fortune 500 customers.

“The first $500 million we invested in this technology has powered growth across our AI ecosystem, and we’ll continue to incorporate learnings from across our business, partners, and customers to help build the AI leaders of tomorrow,” said John Somorjai, the president of Salesforce Ventures.

According to industry reports, the global AI market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.3% from 2023 to 2030, driven by increased enterprise adoption of AI technologies. Healthcare, finance, retail, and manufacturing sectors are rapidly deploying AI to streamline operations, improve customer engagement, and generate new business insights. However, the integration of AI into business processes is not without risks. Concerns about data privacy, ethical AI use, and regulatory challenges remain significant hurdles for widespread adoption.

“The AI landscape has evolved greatly in the past year, encompassing everything from powerful LLMs to business-boosting applications — yet no enterprise will adopt AI at scale unless they trust it will deliver strong returns and avoid putting their reputation at risk,” said Paul Drews, the managing partner of Salesforce Ventures. “Our expanded investment deepens our commitment to helping the most dynamic and expansive innovators win the market by accelerating their growth through our customer network and delivering trusted AI that earns the confidence of the biggest companies in the world.”

Salesforce Ventures is headquartered in San Francisco, and it has additional offices in New York City, San Diego, London, and Tokyo.