Its a beautiful morning
Nandini Roy Choudhary, writer
In brief
- Salesforce announced on Thursday that it will establish its inaugural artificial intelligence centre in the United Kingdom at the Blue Fin building in London.
- Salesforce’s $4 billion investment in the United Kingdom will be used to promote industry collaboration and facilitate AI training and upskilling programmes. The centre is a component of this programme.
- Additionally, Salesforce disclosed that its venture arm, Salesforce Ventures, has allocated more than $200 million to U.K. entrepreneurs, including Eleven Labs and AutoGen AI.
LONDON— Salesforce, an enterprise IT giant, is investing in the U.K. as a global technology powerhouse by creating an artificial intelligence centre in London.
The U.S. software company announced Thursday that it is opening a 40,000-square-foot office in London’s Blue Fin building that can accommodate 300 personnel.
The business said it will promote industry collaboration among IT firms, AI specialists, Salesforce partners, and customers and ease AI training and upskilling.
Salesforce hopes the AI centre will create 500,000 U.K. AI jobs.
With a free event to train over 100 developers, the facility will launch on June 18.
The first of several global centres, Salesforce claimed, will assist its U.K. and Ireland businesses. CEO Zahra Bahrololoumi of the UK and Ireland will be in charge of it.
The announcement came at the Salesforce World Tour in London on Thursday, where over 17,500 attendees and consumers from Aston Martin, McLaren, Just Eat Takeaway, and John Lewis will attend.
Salesforce’s Bahrololoumi said, “By locating Salesforce’s first flagship AI centre in London, we are sending a clear message to customers and partners on AI: we are deeply committed to working closely together so that you can reap the rewards of this transformative technology while ensuring it is a force for good.
$4 billion will be put into the UK
Salesforce promised to spend $4 billion in the U.K. over five years, starting in 2023. The AI centre is part of that investment.
Salesforce announced the opening of its AI centre and also said that its venture capital arm, Salesforce Ventures, had put more than $200 million into U.K. startups. Some of these include Eleven Labs, an AI-driven text-to-speech and voice generator, and AutoGen AI, a platform for writing procurement bids.
There are doubts about whether Salesforce’s investments in AI are paying off, which is why this news came out. Last week, the company revealed lower-than-expected revenue for the first quarter and gave investors less-than-expected guidance.
Salesforce made $9.13 billion in sales during the period, which is 11% more than the same time last year but less than what analysts had predicted ($9.17 billion). The company said it expects adjusted earnings of $2.34 to $2.36 per share for the current quarter. This is less than the $2.40 per share that experts were expecting.
Source : CNBC News
