AI investment

Salesforce is investing $15 billion over five years to advance AI and support its San Francisco headquarters. The investment includes an AI incubator and the “Agentforce 360” platform for AI-powered digital assistants. CEO Marc Benioff emphasizes the commitment to innovation and job creation. This move occurs before Dreamforce, expected to generate $130 million for San Francisco. Salesforce also plans a $1 billion investment in Mexico. Analyst Dan Romanoff sees the AI investment as vital for maintaining a competitive edge in a talent-scarce market.

Alibaba’s Hong Kong shares surged to 2021 highs after announcing increased AI investment and new AI product updates. Shares jumped over 6%, boosting year-to-date gains above 107%. CEO Eddie Wu revealed plans to increase spending on AI models and infrastructure on top of the existing 380 billion yuan investment. Alibaba unveiled the Qwen3-Max large language model and updates to its AI portfolio, emphasizing its position as a full-stack AI service provider. Wu projected over $4 trillion global AI investment in the next five years, highlighting Alibaba’s strategic AI pivot.

Google is investing £5 billion ($6.8 billion) to boost the UK’s AI infrastructure, including a new data center near London to support its AI-driven services. This investment, coinciding with President Trump’s UK visit, is expected to create 8,250 jobs annually and contribute significantly to the UK economy. The strategy involves DeepMind’s AI research and a collaboration with Shell for renewable energy supply, aligning with the UK’s sustainability goals. Alphabet anticipates AI to add £400 billion to the UK economy by 2030.

European tech is showing signs of strength with recent activity including ElevenLabs’ valuation doubling, ASML’s investment in Mistral AI, and Klarna’s NYSE IPO valuing it over $17 billion. This has reignited discussions about Europe’s ability to compete with US and Asian tech ecosystems. However, challenges remain, including macroeconomic pressures, market fragmentation, and the need for pension fund investments in venture capital, hindering expansion. The “EU Inc.” initiative aims to address regulatory hurdles.

GSR Ventures Managing Partner Zhu Xiaohu predicts that large language models (LLMs) will “devour” 90% of AI Agents. His comments, shared on Xiaohongshu, follow previous skepticism about embodied AI and highlight his firm’s bullish stance on the broader AI landscape, evidenced by investments in companies like Robopoet and LiblibAI. Zhu likened AI Agent startups to early internet webmasters, suggesting they learn from successful internet companies. His perspective sparks debate about the long-term viability of standalone AI Agents.

Meta is in advanced talks to invest over $10 billion in AI data labeling startup Scale AI. This deal, if finalized, would be a historic private financing, reflecting the importance of data in the AI landscape. Scale AI, which provides data labeling services crucial for training machine learning models, has experienced rapid growth. Meta’s investment signals a shift toward external AI partnerships and supports its strategic focus on AI, including its Llama language model and AI-powered integrations across its platforms.