Salesforce Investing $15B in San Francisco, the World’s AI Capital

Salesforce pledges to invest in AI innovation, customer success, and workforce development in the City

Company welcomes nearly 50,000 attendees to the 23rd annual Dreamforce, the world’s largest AI event, to hear from customers becoming Agentic Enterprises

Dreamforce is expected to generate $130 million in revenue for the City of San Francisco and create 35,000 local jobs

The combined all-time donations of Salesforce, the city's top corporate philanthropist, and the Benioffs surpass $1 billion to the Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the world’s #1 AI CRM, today announced plans to invest $15 billion in San Francisco over the next five years, reinforcing the city’s status as the world’s AI capital. The investment will support a new AI Incubator Hub on the Salesforce San Francisco campus, grow the AI ecosystem by investing in workforce development and training, and help companies transform into Agentic Enterprises.

The news was announced just ahead of the company’s annual Dreamforce conference, which will welcome nearly 50,000 people to San Francisco October 14-16. Billed as the world’s largest AI event, Dreamforce is celebrating its 23rd year in the city and is expected to generate $130 million in local revenue and 35,000 local jobs in support of the event.

“San Francisco is a city of innovation, talent, and vision,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce. “This $15 billion investment reflects our deep commitment to our hometown — advancing AI innovation, creating jobs, and helping companies and our communities thrive in this incredible new era. As we welcome nearly 50,000 people, and millions more online to Dreamforce, we’re investing in the future of San Francisco and leading the next great technology transformation — where humans and AI work together to drive productivity, growth, and meaningful change.”

From CRM startup to AI powerhouse

What started as an idea to deliver an online customer relationship management (CRM) service in 1999 to help salespeople track leads has grown into a more than 76,000-employee company that has redefined enterprise software — from pioneering the cloud to leading the next wave of AI.

Today, Salesforce is San Francisco’s largest private employer, occupying 30 floors of the city’s tallest building. The company also has a thriving local customer base that includes some of the city’s most iconic brands, including OpenTable, The Real Real, and William-Sonoma, Inc. Salesforce has also played a key role in helping local startups achieve successful outcomes. Acquisitions of Bay Area companies include MuleSoft (2018), Slack (2021), Airkit (2023), Tenyx (2024), and PredictSpring (2024). In 2025 alone, the company has completed acquisitions of local companies including Bluebirds, Waii, and Regrello, and signed a definitive agreement to acquire Informatica.

As AI reshapes the workplace, Salesforce is helping its employees, customers, partners, and communities navigate this transformation. The company’s new AI Incubator Hub aims to help early-stage startups accelerate their development and drive transformative applications in artificial intelligence.

Salesforce also created the 4Rs playbook to help any company become an Agentic Enterprise by redesigning how work gets done, reskilling people, redeploying talent to unlock agility, and rebalancing work. The company has added thousands of salespeople in recent months, and has created entirely new jobs required for the agentic AI future, like Agentic Data Specialist, Agentic Integration Specialist, AI Architect, Agentforce Technical Architect, and Agentic Experience Specialist.

The company is also providing upskilling opportunities through Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform. To date, Trailhead has helped more than 5 million people build their skills and prepare for the future of work with AI, including 3,300 in San Francisco. Salesforce is skilling up its workforce on skills of the future through its AI-powered talent marketplace, Career Connect.

The company is also a prolific investor in the Bay Area. Salesforce Ventures, a leading multi-stage venture capital fund founded in 2009, has invested in San Francisco’s most innovative AI startups, including Anthropic, Together AI, Writer, Pano, and Fal.

A force for good

Salesforce was built on the idea that business is the greatest platform for change with its 1-1-1 model — committing 1% of its equity, product, and employee time to its communities. Today, that has resulted in more than 60,000 nonprofits worldwide using Salesforce technology for free or at a steep discount and 10 million volunteer hours back into its communities.

Salesforce also announced a new $39 million pledge to education and healthcare — bringing the combined all-time contributions of Salesforce and the Benioffs to the Bay Area to more than $1 billion.

The 1-1-1 model has grown into the Pledge 1% movement, with more than 19,000 companies and igniting over $3 billion in new philanthropy.

Go deeper:

• Read about Salesforce philanthropy
• Learn more about Dreamforce

About Salesforce

Salesforce helps organizations of any size become agentic enterprises — integrating humans, agents, apps, and data on a trusted, unified platform to unlock unprecedented growth and innovation. Visit www.salesforce.com for more information.

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Source: Salesforce