Marc Benioff says Salesforce's investment in Anthropic was a plan B that could pay off in ‘tens of billions’

Marc Benioff said that OpenAI's relationship with Microsoft prevented Salesforce from investing. Bloomberg/Getty Images Marc Benioff said that OpenAI's relationship with Microsoft prevented Salesforce from investing. Salesforce backed Anthropic and other AI startups instead. Marc Benioff said Salesforce could make "tens of billions" from Anthropic. Not being able to invest in OpenAI may have worked out perfectly for Salesforce. On an episode of the Sources Podcast published Tuesday, Marc Benioff told host Alex Heath that he originally wanted Salesforce to invest in OpenAI. Instead, the company backed its rival Anthropic , a decision the Salesforce CEO now thinks could be worth a fortune. "I knew Sam Altman very well," Benioff said. "I was like, 'Hey, I'd really like to be investing now in the company.' And he's like, unfortunately, because of the Microsoft relationship , we were not allowed to invest in OpenAI."