Sberbank to increase investments in AI to 350 bln rubles in 2026 - Gref

MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) - Sberbank will more than double investments in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) to 350 billion rubles in 2026, CEO Herman Gref told journalists.

"Within three years, we plan to invest 600 billion rubles in artificial intelligence. We invested just over 100 billion rubles last year, 150 billion rubles this year, and we will invest 350 billion rubles next year," Gref said at the sidelines of the AI Journey conference.

He said that AI would generate 1.4 trillion rubles of income for Sberbank in 2024 and 2025.

"The investments which I have mentioned will practically all be spent on generative AI, but we will get the payoff from artificial intelligence as a whole," Gref said. He said that investments in generative AI were not currently paying off.

"Developing models, training them, experimenting with models - this is all very expensive. Of course, only fairly large companies and companies which have learned to earn using artificial intelligence can afford it," Gref said.