Software company Salesforce said Tuesday it’s buying Informatica, which provides businesses with artificial-intelligence-powered data management tools, for $8 billion.

The acquisition, one of Salesforce’s largest purchases, underscores how Bay Area companies are investing heavily in AI as they race to advance technology.

San Francisco-based Salesforce helps businesses manage sales and customer data. The company said in a news release that the acquisition of Informatica, headquartered in Redwood City, will boost its efforts to deploy AI agents that can perform tasks without human oversight.

Salesforce runs a data platform known as Data Cloud and owns software companies Mulesoft and Tableau, a data visualization platform.

“By uniting the power of Data Cloud, MuleSoft, and Tableau with In

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