Salesforce plans to invest $1 billion in Singapore over the next five years, it was revealed on Tuesday. The remarks came courtesy of CEO Marc Benioff at CONVERGE LIVE, a global meeting of business leaders, policymakers and investors, hosted in Singapore.
Benioff claims the investment is premised upon accelerating the country’s digital transformation, including the adoption of Agentforce, its AI offering. Just last week, Salesforce unveiled a series of updates to the AI agent in a bid to ward off competition from Microsoft.
Salesforce is one of many tech companies hedging its bets on AI in a big way. President Trump’s return to the White House in January has led to businesses ramping up their AI spend, with many determined to take market share off of OpenAI, which continues to be the platform of choice.
Salesforce to Invest $1 Billion in Singapore
Cloud software giant, Salesforce, plans to invest $1 billion in Singapore over the next five years, according to CEO Marc Benioff. The company has been investing in the country for almost 20 years, with this latest pledge designed to fuel the widespread adoption of Agentforce, the company’s AI platform.
In a statement, the company claims: “Agentforce delivers Singapore an opportunity to rapidly expand its labor force in many key service and public sector roles…as Agentforce adoption accelerates, it has the potential to drive significant impact across Singapore’s industries, startups, and the public sector.”
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The news caps a busy month for the software company, which last week unveiled a series of upgrades to its AI model, known as Agentforce 2dx, and last month announced plans to let go of more than 1,000 employees to make room for AI. Alongside this, it also plans to invest $500 million in Saudi Arabia, and a further $500 million in Argentina.
Asia Covets Global AI Hub Status
Singapore is jostling for top-dog status in the AI world. In 2023, the country unveiled the National AI Strategy 2.0 (NAIS 2.0), which included plans to invest $1 billion in infrastructure, research, and talent development. This has since been matched by Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and now Salesforce.
Elsewhere, countries across Asia are making similar plays. Malaysia recently committed $250 million over the next 10 years to acquire chip design blueprints from Arm Holdings, the UK-based semiconductor company. With this information, it hopes to meet growing demand for domestic AI and data centers.
Thailand has received substantial investment in recent years. In 2024, Microsoft revealed that it planned to build new cloud and AI infrastructure in the country. The same year, Google announced $1 billion of investment to build a data center and cloud region there, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently committed $5 billion over the next 15 years.
Tech Companies Betting Big on AI
In recent years, companies across the tech sector have raced to invest in AI. With President Trump back in the Oval Office, momentum has reached fever pitch. Soon after taking office, the returning Republican dismantled many of the safeguards that the previous administration had put in place. He also announced Project Stargate, a new company with designs to be the “largest AI infrastructure project in history.”
Several big tech players have taken this as their cue to invest heavily in AI. Last week, reports emerged that search engine giant, Google, plans to show AI Overviews for even more search queries, despite an underwhelming response to the new AI feature. Meanwhile, DBS Bank recently revealed that thousands of employees will make way for new AI deployments.
Salesforce hopes that its own forays will be successful. In the words of CEO Benioff: “We don’t just do sales and marketing here. We also do extremely advanced artificial intelligence development.” Whether or not its recent investments are enough to cement its status as a frontrunner in the race, however, remains to be seen.
