Salesforce will invest $1 billion in Spain over the next five years to turn its Madrid headquarters into its main artificial intelligence centre for southern EMEA.
The multinational Salesforce will commit $1 billion (around €892 million) to Spain over the next five years. The aim is for its new headquarters in Madrid to be its main operations and artificial intelligence centre for southern EMEA, a region that encompasses more than 90 countries. According to El Español, the announcement was made during the institutional event inaugurating the office.
The investment includes the opening of the offices, although the company has not detailed the cost of the relocation. It will also fund a design and implementation unit for intelligent agents and the recruitment and training of young talent from these regions.
The president and chief operating officer of the company, Miguel Milano, defended the announcement during his speech at the event:
The scale of this budget reaffirms Salesforce's commitment to Spain.
The event also featured the United States ambassador to Spain, Benjamín León Jr, and the Digitalisation advisor of the Community of Madrid, Miguel López-Valverde.
Salesforce has more than 700 employees and 3,000 clients in Spain. Its solutions are implemented in 75% of the Ibex 35 and in over 1,000 public bodies across 11 regional governments.
Natalia Escobedo, the new senior vice president and general manager for Iberia, replaces Enrique Polo de Lara, who led the subsidiary for the last 12 years. Escobedo comes from IBM and, more recently, Microsoft, and her priority is the Agentforce platform, which creates and deploys autonomous agents.
During the presentation of the headquarters, Escobedo stated:
We want to fill this space with young talent. The city of Madrid has become a reference for southern Europe in digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.
The chief financial officer, Robin Washington, added that the company will focus on creating agentic organisations and training future talent. Part of the plan involves graduates from various nationalities completing one year of intensive training in Spain and then returning to their home countries.
According to the consultancy IDC, cumulative spending on AI technologies for digital work in Spain will reach $359 billion, with an annual growth rate of 30% until 2030.
You may also like
