Salesforce Ventures Launches $250M Fund for “Responsible AI”

Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of Salesforce, launched a $250 million generative artificial intelligence (AI) fund to spark the “development of responsible AI.” The fund coincides with Salesforce’s Einstein GPT, a generative AI tool for customer-relationship management.

The fund will initially invest in four generative AI-focused startups, including Anthropic, Cohere, Hearth.AI and You.com.

More than two-thirds of leaders will be prioritizing generative AI over the next 18 months, but technical and ethical concerns with the technology remain a top concern, according to Salesforce Ventures.

Salesforce’s latest investments in generative AI comes amid an increasing number of corporations quickly integrating the new technology within their products, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform, which will receive a $10 billion investment from Microsoft.

The new fund is Salesforce Ventures’ largest by leaps and bounds. Over the past decade, the firm has raised more than a dozen funds, ranging in size from $50 million to $125 million. In 2017, it raised $50 million for an AI Innovation fund to support its Einstein AI tool set.

The investment comes amid a battle with five powerful activist investors who have complained about Saleforces’ weak business performance and have clamored for change on the board of directors.