Exclusive: A giant ‘AI Institute’ is coming to West Palm Beach. Yes, West Palm Beach
Enterprise technology company ServiceNow is expected to announce plans today to build an AI-focused office in West Palm Beach, Florida, as part of an expansion in the Southeast region.
The Santa Clara, California-based company says it will become the anchor tenant in a new Related Ross office building, and that the space will serve as a hub for product innovation, enterprise AI development, and workforce education.
Bill McDermott, chairman and CEO of ServiceNow, is calling the space an “AI Institute,” which will include a customer engagement center, access to a “ServiceNow University” for AI education and certification, and a startup accelerator for “young businesses and innovators from all over the world who want to build software and rapidly prototype.”
The ServiceNow facility, which is expected to open in 2028, joins a growing number of corporations with offices in West Palm Beach, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Point72, and Elliott Management. Cleveland Clinic recently announced plans to build a hospital in the city, and Vanderbilt University is developing a graduate education campus in West Palm Beach.
“We really concentrated on bringing schools, hospitals, recreational facilities to Florida and dealing with all the infrastructure and amenities needed for a place that’s growing,” says Stephen Ross, CEO and chairman of Related Ross, founder of Related Companies, and owner of the Miami Dolphins pro football team.
Related Ross owns 3 million square feet of commercial and residential space in Palm Beach County, with another 3.5 million square feet in its pipeline. ServiceNow has committed to occupy up to 200,000 square feet.
The state of Florida has contributed a $15 million development package to ServiceNow, and West Palm Beach offered the company a relocation and development assistance grant to match state funds up to $2 million.
“Your dollar goes a lot further”
Ross and McDermott credit Keith James, mayor of West Palm Beach, for collaborating with businesses such as theirs to bring educational and economic opportunity to the city. (ServiceNow says its West Palm Beach office will create some 850 new jobs through 2030; the company, which last year posted $10.97 billion in revenue, employs about 27,000 people worldwide.) James, meanwhile, highlighted the work of the Related Ross Foundation, which supports local programs and neighborhood improvements.
The mayor’s office says the total taxable value of property in the city rose to $25.49 billion in 2025, up 87% from $13.61 billion in 2019. Employment last year was 80,237, up from 74,492 in 2019.
“I’m not looking for companies to build me pretty buildings,” James says. “I’m looking for companies to help me build a community.”
For McDermott, West Palm Beach offers something increasingly rare: a location where young tech talent can afford to live while building careers. “You can talk to a young innovator at a university and you say, ‘Your dollar goes a lot further in West Palm than it will in San Francisco,’” he says. “That means a lot to young people.”
