The Week’s Biggest Funding Rounds: Scale AI Tops Busy Week For AI Investment
It was another big week for AI-related funding, topped off by Scale AI’s massive new investment from Meta. We also saw big rounds for startups in sectors including cybersecurity, networking, enterprise software and robotics, among other areas.
1. Scale AI, $14.3B, gen AI: San Francisco-based Scale AI, a provider of training data and model evaluation for AI applications, announced Thursday that it raised a new investment, reportedly totaling $14.3 billion, from Meta at a valuation of $29 billion. The agreement will also expand Scale and Meta’s commercial relationship, with Scale’s founder, Alexandr Wang, joining Meta to work on its AI efforts.
2. Cyera, $540M, cybersecurity: Data security platform Cyera announced that it raised $540 million in a Series E round with backers including Georgian, Greenoaks and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The round brings total funding for the New York- and Israel-headquartered company to $1.3 billion, per Crunchbase data.
3. Meter, $170M, networking: San Francisco-based networking infrastructure provider Meter announced that it raised $170 million in a Series C financing led by General Catalyst. Meter was founded in 2015 and has raised $255 million to date, per Crunchbase data.
4. Glean, $150M, AI work assistant: Enterprise AI startup Glean announced that it has raised $150 million in a Series F round led by Wellington Management at a $7.2 billion valuation. The latest fundraise took place just nine months after Palo Alto, California-based Glean announced a $260 million Series E that doubled the company’s valuation to $4.6 billion.
5. Gecko Robotics, $125M, robotics: Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics, an AI and robotics startup developing a platform for building and operating infrastructure for defense, energy and manufacturing sectors, announced that it raised a Series D round at $1.25 billion valuation. The round reportedly totaled $125 million, with Cox Enterprises as lead investor.
6. (tied) Fervo Energy, $100M, geothermal energy: Houston-based Fervo Energy, a developer of geothermal energy projects, announced that it raised $100 million in equity financing from Breakthrough Energy Ventures’ Breakthrough Energy Catalyst platform. The company also picked up $106 million in debt financing from Mercuria and X-Caliber Rural Capital for a major geothermal project in Utah.
6. (tied) Laurel, $100M, timesheet management: Laurel, provider of an AI-enabled platform for tracking time spent by knowledge workers, raised $100 million in a Series C led by IVP. Founded in 2016, San Francisco-based Laurel has raised $156 million to date, per Crunchbase data.
8. Linear, $82M, software development tools: San Francisco-based Linear, a provider of project planning tools for software development, announced that it raised $82 million in Series C financing led by Accel. The financing sets a $1.25 billion valuation for the 6-year-old company.
9. (tied) Mosanna Therapeutics, $80M, sleep apnea treatment: Mosanna Therapeutics, a startup based in Silicon Valley and Basel, Switzerland that is developing a nasal spray for obstructive sleep apnea, raised $80 million in initial funding led by Pivotal bioVenture Partners and EQT Life Sciences.
9. (tied) Coco Robotics, $80M, delivery robots: Santa Monica, California-based Coco Robotics, a startup operating a fleet of small, self-driving delivery vehicles, raised $80 million in a funding round that includes SNR.vc, Sam Altman, Pelion Venture Partners and Outlander VC. Coco said it plans to deploy 10,000 autonomous delivery vehicles by the end of 2026.
9. (tied) Canary Technologies, $80M, hospitality software: San Francisco-based Canary Technologies, a provider of hotel guest management software, raised $80 million in a Series D round led by Brighton Park Capital. The financing brings funding to date for the 8-year-old company to $177 million, per Crunchbase data.
Has multi-club ownership hit its limits?
Crystal Palace: victims of their own success © PA Wire/PA Images
Long before a ball was kicked, the Club World Cup set an important precedent with big implications for investors.
Fifa’s decision to eject Mexican side Club Leon from the tournament due to its common ownership with Pachuca has set a hard line on what is permissible under multiclub ownership. That the case then went to the Court of Arbitration in Sport further underlined a new reality in which governing bodies can no longer turn a blind eye.
Crystal Palace may be the first victim of the new approach. The south London club won its first major trophy less than a month ago, but the celebrations have been crudely interrupted. Its place in next season’s Europa League is in peril — due solely to the make-up of its ownership group.
Palace have four owners — longtime chair Steve Parish, Apollo co-founder Josh Harris, Blackstone executive David Blitzer, and tech entrepreneur John Textor. None of them has a controlling stake, all four have equal voting rights.
Textor’s Eagle Football, which owns Olympique Lyonnais, RWD Molenbeek and Botafogo, has the biggest slice at around 45 per cent. And that is where the problem lies. Palace qualified for the Europa League by winning the domestic cup, but Lyon also made it after finishing sixth in Ligue 1 (a feat managed in injury time on the last day of the season).
Uefa has raised concerns about Lyon and Palace both competing in the same competition, due to Textor shareholdings in both. There is precedent, such as Red Bull Leipzig and RB Salzburg being allowed into the same competition, and Manchester United and OGC Nice, both backed by Ineos.
Other clubs with shared owners have been able to use blind trusts as a work around. But even if Textor had the foresight (Palace had never qualified for Europe before) ahead of the March 1 deadline to move his shares into a trust, that could have complicated efforts to sell them — as has been his aim for more than a year. Indeed, the money expected from the stake sale is key to his plans to fix Lyon’s battered balance sheet.
Palace now have a couple of weeks to find a solution. Textor has been trying to accelerate a sale of his stake, possibly to Woody Johnson, the former US ambassador to the UK and owner of the New York Jets in the NFL. But a sale to anyone other than Harris and Blitzer may not solve the problem, as any new owner would need to pass the Premier League’s owners and directors test.
The Palace situation has some pretty unique elements, yet it nonetheless poses real questions about the future of multiclub ownership. In theory, the multiclub approach is meant to improve the performance of every team in the network. But if widespread success then puts owners in a situation where they have to relinquish control, what’s the point? And while Uefa’s concern has always been about protecting the integrity of its pan-European competitions, what about the impact on domestic football when owners find themselves having to pick favourites?
The recent trend of investors owning more than one club may not go into reverse, or even slow down. But the questions around whether it does more harm than good are going to keep getting louder.
Fifa’s moment of truth
Will Infantino’s new competition deliver?
Players are unhappy at being asked to play yet more matches while domestic leagues complain that an already overcrowded calendar is at breaking point. A report from Deloitte this week warned that football’s “insatiable appetite for growth” risks having a negative effect on club finances through higher wage demands, while another from Fifpro called for a guaranteed 4-week off-season break and mandatory time off during the season. Yet Fifa and Uefa are pulling in the other direction.
Commercially, the CWC has been an uphill battle. A lack of appetite among traditional broadcasters and big streamers led to a global rights deal with DAZN, now backed by the Saudi state. In the UK, half the games will also be shown on Channel 5, after the BBC and ITV decided it wasn’t worth interrupting their existing summer plans.
Sponsors have been reluctant too. That Fifa announced a new commercial partner just two days before the tournament starts (Airbnb will be the official alternative accommodation and experiences booking platform) points to a late scramble. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund joined the ranks of sponsors just a week earlier.
Ticket prices have reportedly been slashed to drum up demand on the ground, while the threat posed by the hardline stance on immigration in the US may cool appetite for travelling fans. According to The Athletic, US Customs and Border Protection took down a social media post this week that had highlighted the presence of its agents outside each of the host venues.
Despite all the gripes, the Club World Cup is still shaping up to be something of a game-changer. In getting this far, Fifa has firmly established itself as an important player in club football. The size of the prize pot — the winner will take home up to $125mn — makes it as lucrative as winning the Champions League. For clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester City, who faltered in the competition this year, this offers something of a do-over, and helps explain why there has been a flurry of transfer activity in the last couple of weeks as top clubs look to maximise their chances.
But there’s one question that will only be answered in the coming weeks: is the actual football going to be any good? Data consultancy Twenty First Group is not optimistic, pointing out that the Club World Cup will feature 50 of the world’s top 100 players, compared to 72 at the World Cup in Qatar. The group stage games, on paper at least, look pretty lopsided, while a European team has a 95 per cent chance of winning the whole thing. Meanwhile three of the most popular teams in the world failed to qualify, potentially cutting off an important source of fan attention.
Whether Fifa’s land grab has paid off won’t be clear for a month, and possibly not for a few years when they presumably look to do it all again.
In the coming month, there’s a real prospect that elite teams will end up playing in empty stadiums. Glory could well be measured solely in US dollars.
Top Beverage Brands Are Racing to Partner With Formula 1
Formula 1, the sport's 10 teams and its drivers have all partnered with a slew of alcohol and nonalcoholic brands on multiyear deals for the 2025 season and beyond.
Former Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher celebrates his first place win at the 2000 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, alongside Mika Häkkinen and brother Ralf Schumacher.
Since the start of Formula 1 in 1950, celebratory toasts have been deeply intertwined with the culture of racing. Scenes of Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost celebrating their historic wins have now become some of the most recognizable iconography associated with the sport.
From victorious Champagne sprays to the legendary post-race parties held across the racing calendar, beverage brands and their associated triumphs on and off the podium have remained in the spotlight.
And who could forget recently retired Daniel Ricciardo’s popularization of the “shoey” — drinking Champagne out of a shoe (as seen for the first time at the 2016 German Grand Prix).
As Formula 1 has gone full throttle and become a large part of the global cultural zeitgeist — especially in the U.S. — a wide spectrum of beverage brands have become the top partners in the sport. Spirits to nonalcoholic brands alike have become official partners with Formula 1 itself, the individual races and the 10 teams while also tapping its drivers for brand ambassadorships.
Here, a roundup of the major beverage brands that are tapping into Formula 1.
This list will be continuously updated.
Gatorade
Gatorade has launched a multiyear global partnership with Formula 1 — serving as the sport’s official U.S. and Canadian sports drink partnership, at least until 2030. The sports drink will also be the official partner of the F1 Sprint race series, launching later this year to promote hydration while on the track. The partnership bolsters Gatorade’s brand identity and its connection with elite athletic performance by hydrating the world’s top sports competitors.
Gatorade has also announced its partnership as the first official sports drink partner of F1 Academy until 2030. The brand said the collaboration will combine “science, hydration and global visibility” to fuel the next generation of women in motorsports.
This is part of Gatorade’s Fuel Tomorrow initiative to provide 2.5 million teens with access to sports by 2030 — and will support F1 Academy’s mission to have the first woman to become a Formula 1 driver. F1 Academy will be provided with the brand’s sports science and hydration expertise, alongside access to Gatorade’s Sport Science Institute with personalized strategies, performance testing and research.
The F1 Academy collaboration kicks off at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, with 16-year-old Wild Card driver Mathilda Paatz debuting in a Gatorade-branded race car and suit. For the 2026 season, Gatorade will launch its full-fledged partnership, including a driver and race car sponsorship on the 2026 F1 Academy grid with bespoke livery and race suit.
“Partnering with F1 Academy is a powerful moment for Gatorade. Motorsport is one of the most physically demanding sports on the planet, where optimum hydration can be the difference between winning and losing,” said Umi Patel, vice president of marketing innovation and hydration brands at PepsiCo. “This partnership allows us to bring our decades of sports science expertise directly to the next generation of elite drivers. By supporting young women at the start of their motorsport journey, we’re not just setting them up for success at such a pivotal part of their career, we are encouraging them to see what is in them and fuel their drive and ambition for success. That’s what our Fuel Tomorrow initiative is all about.”
Peroni Nastro Azzurro
For the second year of its multiyear partnership with Scuderia Ferrari, Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% has released a new campaign starring Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. The company said the ongoing partnership is in celebration of the two Italian brands that are “synonymous with Italian passion and style.”
The campaign titled “The Welcome Present” greets Ferrari’s new driver, Lewis Hamilton, and his new team to Italy, delivering him 44 cases of nonalcoholic beer as a spotlight of the “warmth and generosity of being welcomed in Italian style.” (The 44 cases pays homage to Hamilton’s, who has been sober for two years, race number.)
During a 2024 Peroni poster unveiling, fans speculated on Hamilton’s shocking move to the new team as the race car included a 44, but both companies denied this and said it was an homage to Ferrari’s first Formula 1 driver to win a race Maurice Trintignant and the history of Ferrari in F1.
“We are incredibly proud to launch our new partnership with Ferrari,” said Paolo Lanzarotti, chief executive officer of Asahi Europe and International in 2024. “Through this partnership, we intend to elevate every moment for the fans who make this sport so special and who embody the very passion and flair so pivotal to both Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% and Ferrari.”
Belvedere Vodka announced its partnership with Formula 1, making it the first official vodka partner for the 2025 season and beyond. This is just the latest of the LVMH-owned brands to partner with Formula 1 ahead of its 75th anniversary season.
The brand said the pursuit of excellence, innovation and exceptional performance is a key ethos of both brands, with their shared “dedication to pushing boundaries and delivering the highest standards of luxury and achievement.”
Formula 1’s president and chief executive officer, Stefano Domenicali, said Belvedere’s entry into the world of motorsports partnership highlights the strength of LVMH’s decade-long partnership.
“I am immensely proud of the partnership between Belvedere and Formula 1,” said Francois-Xavier Desplancke, president and chief executive officer of Belvedere Vodka. “Our mutual dedication to innovation, expertise and precision naturally aligns our brands, creating a truly exceptional alliance. In the high-octane world of Formula 1 — where milliseconds forge legends and engines roar with untamed energy — Belvedere Vodka arrives not just as a partner, but as the embodiment of the festivities and the entertainment. Formula 1 isn’t just about speed; it’s about spectacle. And where there’s a race, there will be always a reason to honor the excitement of the sport, from off track to beyond.”Belvedere
Moët & Chandon
Moët & Chandon has come full circle to sponsor Formula 1 and named its official Champagne. Dan Gurney, American motorsports driver and winner of Le Mans in 1967, shook and sprayed his jeroboam bottle of Moët & Chandon — and thus, the tradition for drivers to douse each other in celebratory fizzy sprays was born.
Over the decades of Formula 1, the French Champagne brand has been linked to the celebrations of racing legends, including Sir Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Mika Häkkinen and Michael Schumacher.
Notably, Moët & Chandon has also announced its title partnership at the 2025 Formula 1 Moët & Chandon Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps.
“The tradition of toasting on the podium is one of the most iconic moments in our sport and we are thrilled to welcome once again Moët & Chandon as the official Champagne of Formula 1,” said Stefano Domenicali, president and chief executive officer of Formula 1. “This partnership celebrates the history, emotion and excellence that bind Formula 1 and Moët & Chandon, in a perfect union of performance and refinement in a truly special year that sees us celebrate our 75th anniversary.”
Chivas Regal
Ahead of the 2024 Las Vegas, Scuderia Ferrari and Chivas Regal announced their multiyear partnership — the Scottish whisky company is an official team partner of the historic Italian racing team from 2025 onwards.
“We are pleased to announce our partnership with Chivas Regal, with whom we share the values of striving for excellence, attention to detail and craftsmanship — founded on years of tradition, while constantly evolving,” said Frederic Vasseur, team principal at Scuderia Ferrari. “Together, we share the desire to progress and set the benchmark in our respective fields of endeavor. I look forward to working with Chivas Regal in a partnership that will be beneficial for both brands.”
Independent of the team partnership, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was also named the spirit company’s new global ambassador. Leclerc, a self-taught piano player who’s released music over the years, is hosting a one-night-only piano bar pop-up with Chivas Regal called “Leclerc’s” on Tuesday at the upcoming Australian Grand Prix to merge together the worlds of music and whisky.
“It’s no secret Charles has had incredible success in his life, but it is his tenacious spirit, commitment to excellence and off-track passions that inspired this partnership,” said Nick Blacknell, global marketing director of Chivas Regal at Chivas Brothers.
Almave
At the 2023 Mexico Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton sent fans into a tizzy when he took a sip of his newly launched nonalcoholic spirit Almave — he also accessorized his paddock looks by carrying a bottle of his two options, Almave Ámbar and Almave Blanco with him into the paddock.
Hamilton worked and cofounded the company with Iván Saldaña, a master distiller at Casa Lumbre and the investment firm Copper, to launch the venture.
“I’ve always loved tequila for its taste, but there are times when I don’t want the alcohol part of the deal and I know that there is a growing group of people who want the same,” Hamilton previously told WWD.
Over the past two years, Hamilton has hosted a slew of fan activations during the Miami Grand Prix and the Las Vegas Grand Prix race weekends. In October 2024, Pernod Ricard acquired a minority stake in the company.
“With Almave, Lewis Hamilton and Casa Lumbre have designed something that is truly exceptional in terms of quality, taste and positioning,” said Alexandre Ricard, chairman and chief executive officer of Pernod Ricard. “Agave is a highly sought-after category across the world. Having a non[alcoholic] proposition in our Premium portfolio that pays full tribute to the craft and savoir-faire of its traditional distillation makes it a true gem. I’m very excited to see Pernod Ricard support the development and fulfil the true potential of Almave.”
Liquid I.V.
The Unilever-owned electrolyte drink mix Liquid I.V. has inked with the Miami Grand Prix for a multiyear partnership to be the race’s official hydration partner — making it the company’s first foray into the world of Formula 1 and motorsports.
The company hosted its first Liquid I.V. Racehouse in 2024 and did a full Miami takeover, including placing billboards around the city and giving out samples to Grand Prix attendees inside and outside of the Paddock Club and general admissions areas.
“A partnership like this is so meaningful to us because it’s high impact, high engagement,” Stacey Andrade-Wells, chief marketing officer of Liquid I.V., previously told WWD. “It puts us at the forefront of culture. It really allows us to enter into a sports and racing space in a more official capacity. [Formula 1] got on our radar especially because we noticed that the fandom of Formula 1 is growing amongst female audiences. We have a very big female consumer base today so it was a great opportunity for us to lean into that and bring Liquid I.V. to life to an audience that is becoming more and more female by the day.”
Glenfiddich
Ahead of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Aston Martin and Glenfiddich announced their multiyear partnership. The Scotch whisky company said bringing together two timeless brands shared commitment to “their heritage, innovation and relentless pursuit of excellence.”
And to celebrate the partnership, Glenfiddich explored its archives to find a rare cask from 1959 — paying tribute to the year of Aston Martin’s debut in the sport and the year they won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
“This partnership between Glenfiddich and Aston Martin Formula One Team is rooted in a shared passion for excellence and innovation,” said Søren Hagh, chief executive officer of William Grant & Sons. “Glenfiddich’s whisky-making heritage meets Aston Martin’s iconic presence in motorsport, creating a timeless yet forward-thinking partnership. Together, we’re inspiring a global audience, inviting them to experience a legacy built on dedication and mastery.”
Heineken
Ahead of the 2023 season, Heineken 0.0 announced its multiyear partnership with four-time Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen to be its global ambassador. The nonalcoholic beer also became a partner of Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing team.
Verstappen, a Dutch-Belgian motorsports driver, said that “it is something truly special to partner up with an iconic Dutch brand like Heineken.” Moreover, as an avid gamer and passionate simulator racer, his partnership with Heineken has extended to Player 0.0, a global gaming initiative in the US since 2024 — Verstappen was on-site in Madrid this past Dec. at the Heineken Player 0.0 Global Final. He also starred in a Heineken responsible drinking ad where he played a designated driver.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with not only the current world champion, but also the team behind him in Oracle Red Bull Racing,” said Bram Westenbrink, global head of brand at Heineken. “Max is a Dutch and global icon. He is the perfect ambassador for Heineken 0.0; his passion both on and off the track — in the Sim Racing community, will expand our message into the world of gaming with Player 0.0 and help in our push to encourage responsible consumption”.
Heineken has also the title partner of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, since its inaugural race.
Jack Daniel’s
During the 2022 season, Jack Daniel’s announced a multiyear partnership with McLaren for 2023 and beyond — and making them an official team partner. Since then, the Tennessee whiskey company has also released two special-edition McLaren Racing Edition Tennessee Whiskey bottles in 2023 and 2024, available for fan purchase at select races.
The company has also worked with Universal Music Group for Brands to host its ongoing series of “Jack’s Garage” with Metro Boomin in Vegas in 2023; Chris Jedi and Gaby Music in Miami in 2024; Shaboozey and Brothers Osborne in Austin in 2024, and T-Pain in Vegas also in 2024.
“We’re proud to celebrate the continued partnership between McLaren and Jack Daniel’s, two brands known around the world for representing a spirit of boldness and authenticity,” said Jamie Butler, global brand director at Jack Daniel’s. “Together, we’ve created unmatched fan experiences around F1 races and are looking to build upon that success and accelerate in the new race season.”
Patrón
In 2022, Patrón became the first official partner of the Formula 1 Paddock Club. The tequila company went on to announce its global spirits multiyear partnership with Red Bull Racing to cement its place in motorsports in 2023 at the Miami Grand Prix with its Patrón Pit Stop experience for Cinco de Mayo — with Becky G performing. That same year, the partnership celebrated Mexican heritage by collaborating with former Red Bull Mexican driver Sergio Perez on a limited-edition collectible heritage tin.
For the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Patrón teamed up with Olympic gold medalist Shaun White to create an off-the-track experience featuring three bars at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel serving the brand’s special margarita and appearances by White to mix up cocktails.
“Our partnership with Oracle Red Bull Racing brings together two like-minded brands that are driven by originality, authenticity and have an undeniable passion to achieve greatness,” Allie Bostwick, senior director of global brand PR, culture and brand partnerships at Patrón Tequila. “This is one of the most exciting times in the history of motorsport with F1 gaining so many new fans — especially in the U.S. F1 is in the cultural zeitgeist like never before and we’re thrilled to be continuing our presence in the world of F1 with our partnership with ORBR.”
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08:00 AM - 02:00 AM24 HOURS MUSEUMTrackside activities
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08:45 AM - 09:30 AMFORD MUSTANG CHALLENGE - RACE 2Support Races
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09:00 AM - 01:00 AMFAN ZONES & KIDS ZONETrackside activities
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10:00 AM - 12:00 AMACO H2 HYDROGEN VILLAGETrackside activities
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10:00 AM - 12:00 AMMANUFACTURERS VILLAGETrackside activities
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10:05 AM - 11:05 AMROAD TO LE MANS - RACE 2Support Races
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10:30 AM - 11:00 AMManufacturers Village - McLarenTrackside activities
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12:00 PM - 12:15 PMWarm-Up24 Hours of Le Mans
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01:35 PM - 02:35 PMGRIDWALKTrackside activities
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03:25 PM - 03:50 PM24 Hours of Le Mans - Official departure Ceremony24 Hours of Le Mans
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04:00 PM24 Hours of Le Mans - Start24 Hours of Le Mans
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08:00 PM - 11:00 PMCONCERT - KOOL & THE GANGConcert
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11:00 PM - 12:00 AMCONCERT - THE AVENERConcert
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11:59 PM - 12:20 AMTHE 24 HOURS OF LE MANS SHOWTrackside activities
A Marc Benioff Protégé Has Morphed Into Salesforce’s Big Worry
After a shock exit as Salesforce co-CEO, Bret Taylor has positioned his AI startup to seize a sizable piece of Marc Benioff’s business.
The Takeaway
• Bret Taylor, Salesforce’s former co-CEO, has sparked one of tech’s most talked-about rivalries with his former boss Marc Benioff.
• Taylor has targeted Salesforce customers to grow his new startup, Sierra.
• Salesforce has responded by sending teams of sales engineers to dissuade them from using Sierra and talk up its rival product, Agentforce.
After an unexpected exit as Salesforce co-CEO in 2022, Bret Taylor sat down with a friend, Benchmark’s Peter Fenton, to brainstorm ideas for what to do next. He knew if he chose to go up against ex-boss Marc Benioff, who had shared the CEO duties with him, Benioff would be a formidable opponent. “He had an immense admiration for Marc,” Fenton recalled. “And that was conveyed to me.”
Still, Taylor has ignited what has turned into one of the most intense and personal rivalries in Silicon Valley with Benioff.
In February 2024, Taylor launched his new startup, Sierra, igniting what has quickly become of the. Sierra makes automated AI software, or agents, for managing client relationships—exactly what much of Salesforce’s software is used for. Sierra has actively courted many of Salesforce’s customers and has signed deals with some of them, including SiriusXM and Sonos, according to a consultant who works with Salesforce customers. (Neither Benioff nor Taylor would comment for this story.)
Salesforce has responded by sending teams of sales engineers to dissuade them from using Sierra and explain why its agent-building service, Agentforce, is better for their needs, said two Salesforce consulting partners. It has also taken other steps to prevent competition from AI companies, like blocking rivals from accessing data in Slack.
In recent months, Benioff has also been calling senior executives at customers to ask why they aren’t moving faster to deploy Agentforce, said a person who has spoken with those executives.
Benioff’s assertive response to Sierra might seem disproportionate given the size of Taylor’s startup. Publicly traded Salesforce commands a market capitalization of more than $250 billion. By contrast, Sierra was last valued at $4.5 billion in an October funding round, which included investors such as Greenoaks Capital and Thrive Capital.
Still, Sierra is growing fast and was recently on pace to generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue this year, according to people close to the company. While that’s not a lot of revenue, it does threaten the part of Salesforce’s business that Benioff has refocused the company on: Agentforce and artificial intelligence, which he sees as the area that’s ripest for growth.
And the threat is led by someone who’s intimately familiar with Salesforce and its weaknesses, including its dependence on a seat-based pricing model that some critics say is outdated. Plus, Taylor enjoys a broad perspective on AI from his perch as OpenAI’s chair.
The Taylor-Benioff rivalry may come down to a truism about any David-versus-Goliath contest: For the smaller contestant to have a credible chance at winning, it helps to know exactly how the giant moves—and where it might stumble.
The relationship between Benioff and Taylor goes back years. Taylor, who previously worked at Google and as Facebook’s chief technology officer, took on increasingly senior roles at Salesforce after it bought Quip, which made software for office workers to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets. In late 2021, Benioff made Taylor his co-CEO, though Taylor continued to report to Benioff.
One of Taylor’s major initiatives at Salesforce was the company’s $27.7 billion purchase of Slack, the largest acquisition in Salesforce’s history—a long-running list given Benioff’s fondness for dealmaking. Although Benioff initially gushed about the deal, he later distanced himself from it by telling colleagues Taylor was its architect.
At the time, some senior Salesforce staff were skeptical that Slack was worth the hefty price tag, given that many of its customers were already using rival software from Microsoft. Despite saying privately that he expected to eventually become Salesforce’s solo CEO, Taylor suddenly left in late 2022, saying that he wanted to start a new company.
Taylor had been closely watching the ripple effect ChatGPT was having on the tech industry, and he knew that he wanted to launch a company based on new AI like OpenAI’s GPT models, recalled Fenton, the venture capitalist. Around that time, Fenton said, he visited Taylor at his home in Lafayette, Calif., when he was still considering a range of directions, from consumer products to business applications.
“That was in a time when he had not decided exactly where to take the technology, but you got the sense that he would land somewhere that would be unbounded,” Fenton said. “I saw his deep curiosity—he’d been reading the white papers, he’d been playing around with the code in Python.”
In the following weeks, Benchmark led a $25 million funding round in Taylor’s new company, which he started with Clay Bavor, a longtime Google executive.
Over the next 12 months, Sierra assembled a small team of engineers and salespeople to develop an early version of its product and begin marketing it to businesses, including consumer-focused companies like WeightWatchers and SiriusXM. Taylor also became enmeshed in the drama surrounding OpenAI’s leadership, joining as the company’s chair in November 2023 after the ouster and subsequent rehiring of CEO Sam Altman. Taylor and a handful of others replaced earlier directors who had clashed with Altman over whether he had been truthful with OpenAI’s board.
Then in early 2024, Taylor publicly unveiled Sierra. He was betting that its agent-powered chat software could better solve customers’ issues while lowering companies’ costs. That mission placed Sierra in direct competition with Salesforce software.
In February 2024, Taylor also announced a funding round of $110 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion from Benchmark and Sequoia Capital, two marquee venture capital firms. The price they paid for Sierra made it one of the most expensively valued startups in tech, relative to how little revenue it had generated to that point.
Seven months later, Benioff announced Salesforce’s contender in the AI agent field: Agentforce. In a splashy presentation at Dreamforce in September 2024, the company’s annual conference for customers and developers held each fall, Benioff announced his intention to reorient the software company around agents that can carry out tasks for workers, including handling support queries. It represented an AI-or-bust bet on the part of Benioff, who has since admitted to considering renaming his company after the new AI software.
By the end of 2024, Microsoft had announced its own agent product, as did more specialized customer support software vendors like Intercom, Zendesk and Decagon.
Sierra seemed to have particular success winning over business from Salesforce customers, many of whom Taylor already knew from his time there. “Bret’s using his Rolodex to get in there,” said Cameron Deatsch, former chief revenue officer at Atlassian and a board director at Intercom, a customer support software startup that competes with Sierra.
In a presentation to a potential customer in late 2024, Sierra said that many of its customers were also Salesforce customers, and that it had specifically designed its product so they could use it in conjunction with the CRM database they buy from Salesforce. For example, Sierra’s AI can respond to a request to return a product by using information stored in a customer’s Salesforce CRM. (Sierra is one of thousands of software providers that sell products that tap into Salesforce data.)
Sierra’s workforce also came to resemble Salesforce’s. As Sierra has grown, Taylor has hired more than 40 former Salesforce employees, who now make up a fifth of Sierra’s roughly 200 total employees. At least 11 of those came directly to Sierra from Salesforce, including Tableau’s former senior vice president of marketing and Salesforce’s senior vice president for self-service and growth.
Some enterprise buyers have come to see Sierra more favorably than Agentforce, which executives have said is far more difficult to set up, according to a person who has spoken with executives who have tested both products at their companies. Still, Salesforce has been giving customers aggressive discounts on the Agentforce software, including bundling it with other offerings like its data management product, this person said. The bundling makes it hard to determine how much revenue the company is bringing in from other products, this person added.
Meanwhile, Sierra still faces its own issues, including how accurate its chatbot is. For instance, when The Information used a Sierra-powered virtual agent on shoe seller OluKai’s website, the agent incorrectly said that the company’s Lae‘ahi Lauhala shoes were out of stock when the product page showed they were available in many different colors and sizes. OluKai was one of the first Sierra customers the company disclosed publicly.
Olukai did not respond to a request to comment. But the company appears to be generally satisfied with the performance of Sierra’s software, which as of February 2024 was enabling it to resolve 70% of its customer inquiries using the virtual agent, according to a case study on Sierra’s website. (Other companies that sell virtual agent software, including Salesforce, have had similar issues with accuracy.)
To win customers over, Sierra has said it will assign engineers to monitor its performance on a weekly basis based on metrics like what portion of customer inquiries it can resolve automatically, according to a person who has heard its sales pitch. But Sierra has also designed its product so non-technical users can use it without assistance from the startup’s engineers, a person close to the company said.
As Sierra courts large businesses, it has offered to customize its product extensively to work with their other software systems, a process that could take months, this person said. That customization could appeal to enterprises that need the AI to work across many different software systems, but it could also come with risks if technology advances quickly, according to Intercom’s Deatsch. If the product becomes obsolete or outdated in the interim, those investments in custom software might look wasteful in hindsight.
Some rival executives privately grumble that Sierra is pinning its hopes on its well-connected CEO instead of on developing cutting-edge technology. The company uses a variety of models, including software from Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta Platforms, to generate responses for customers, a Sierra spokesperson said. Sierra’s system determines which model produces the best answer for each query and uses the response from that one.
One risk to both Salesforce and Sierra is that model providers like Anthropic and OpenAI could come up with their own customer support applications even if Salesforce and Sierra might have a better understanding of what customers want from such technology.
Other software industry executives speculate that Sierra will inevitably end up in the hands of a bigger tech company—possibly even Salesforce itself. That would help justify Sierra’s sky-high valuation for a company with relatively little revenue, said Muddu Sudhakar, a longtime enterprise software executive who co-founded Aisera, a startup that automates IT help desks.
Another possible acquirer could be OpenAI, where, of course, Taylor sits on the board. OpenAI recently hired another senior tech leader, Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, to run its applications business, and the addition of Taylor could help the company gain more market share among corporate customers, many of whom use software from rival Anthropic, Sudhakar said.
While Sierra’s future isn’t entirely clear, one thing is not: Benioff will be coming for Taylor with full force—a reality Benchmark’s Fenton, who knows both men, acknowledged with his usual amount of understatement.
“Part of Marc—of any CEO—is that they have a strong competitive drive,” he said.
Vietnam’s Ready For High Stakes US Trade Talks To Avoid Steep Tariffs
Vietnam, a substantial producer of athletic performance shoes, is hoping to avoid the 46 percent reciprocal tariffs when 90-day pause ends on July 9.
Just ahead of the high-takes reciprocal trade talks with the U.S., Vietnam‘s Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien said the country is ready to open its market and give more incentives for U.S. exports.
In April, U.S. President Donald Trump disclosed global reciprocal tariffs that raised Vietnam’s new total duty rate to 46 percent. Since then, there has been a temporary 10 percent increase during a 90-day pause for imports from Vietnam until July 9. The U.S. and Vietnam have been in intensive trade talks to strike a new trade agreement that would cap any new duties to a number lower than the planned 46 percent tariff should Trump reinstitute the original reciprocal rate.
The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, along with more than 80 leading U.S. footwear firms, at the end of April sent a letter to Trump urging him to exempt footwear from the reciprocal tariff plan. Trade talks are set to resume this month.
Vietnam remains a key manufacturing hub for athletic performance footwear. When Vietnam concluded a second round of tariff talks with the U.S. in Washington last month on the Bilateral Agreement on Reciprocal Trade between Vietnam and the U.S., a May 22 statement from Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade said the talks between the two negotiating delegations — led by Vietnam Minister Nguyen Hong Dien and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer — ”made positive progress.”
In preparation for the next round of talks this month, Dien met with Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. A statement on Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade said on Tuesday that the Asian country is “ready to open its market, provide more incentives for U.S. exports” and has requested the U.S. to take “corresponding steps.”
A Bloomberg story said that while Vietnam has taken steps to crackdown on trade fraud, a U.S. concern, one outstanding issue is the Trump administration’s desire to lower Vietnam’s Chinese imports. While Dien’s in town, he’s been meeting with fashion and retail executives from Nike Inc., Walmart Inc. and others as he gets ready for the upcoming talks.
Footwear executives are keeping close tabs on those talks. In last month’s first quarter earnings conference call, Crocs Inc. CEO Andrew Rees said the “daily uncertainty as to the level of these tariffs makes it incredibly hard to plan and predict both short- and long-term impacts to our business.”
He said sourcing for the U.S. market in 2025 includes 47 percent from Vietnam, 17 percent from Indonesia, 13 percent each for China and India, and 5 percent each for Mexico and Cambodia.
During the call, he spoke about the looming uncertainty of Vietnam, noting that the “whole industry is worried about if a reciprocal tariff remains in place [is] Vietnam. That’s a huge amount of production for us and everybody else. That would be incredibly hard to mitigate.”
Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said during the company’s April 29 conference call on first-quarter earnings that the expectation is that “people will start to raise prices should these duties or all the duties be confirmed.”
Nike has already implemented some price adjustments, raising retail prices in its U.S. that average between $2 and $10, but it did keep intact the current price range for goods under $100. And the Air Force 1 sneaker, a popular work shoe for service providers that’s priced at $115, will not see any price increase.
Other footwear prices, such as sneakers between $100 and $150, will see increases up to $5, while those starting at $150 and higher, could see increases up to $10. The sports and apparel giant elected not to raise any prices on kids’ products, whether footwear or apparel, and it also has determined that there won’t be any increases for any Jordan product.