Semafor Tech: San Francisco is scheduled for Wednesday, May 21 in San Francisco, bringing a one-day technology and AI-focused event to the city as founders, investors, researchers, and policy figures gather for discussions on how artificial intelligence is moving from experimentation into wider commercial and social use. The event page says the program will run from 3:45 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. PDT, following a 3:15 p.m. doors opening, and is centered on the question of how to unlock AI’s real-world impact.
Semafor’s event description frames the gathering around the practical phase of AI adoption. It says the conference will focus on how advances in artificial intelligence are moving beyond hype, while also noting that resources, infrastructure, and policy constraints continue to limit the technology’s full potential. The page adds that the conversation will examine future AI technologies and their implications for how people work, live, and interact with broader governance systems.
The speaker lineup gives the event a mix of AI company leadership, academic research, venture capital, business, and public policy. Listed speakers include Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic; Dr. Fei-Fei Li, founding co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and CEO and co-founder of World Labs; Dan Hendrycks, director of the Center for AI Safety and adviser to xAI and Scale AI; Jill Chase, partner at CapitalG; Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit; Glenn D. Fogel, president and CEO of Booking Holdings; and Ih-Ming Chan, executive vice president of the Singapore Economic Development Board.
That lineup spans several of the sectors now shaping the AI market. Clark represents one of the most closely watched frontier AI companies through Anthropic. Li brings both an academic and startup presence through Stanford and World Labs. Hendrycks adds a safety and governance perspective tied to the Center for AI Safety, while Chase brings an investment lens through CapitalG. Masad’s inclusion gives the event a developer-platform voice from Replit, and Fogel and Chan extend the conversation into global business and economic policy.
The range of institutions represented also gives the event a broader profile than a standard startup panel. Anthropic is one of the leading AI model developers. Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI has been central to Bay Area AI research and policy conversations. World Labs, Replit, xAI, Scale AI, CapitalG, Booking Holdings, and the Singapore Economic Development Board all appear on the speaker slate, connecting the conference to frontier AI development, coding tools, venture investment, travel technology, and government-led economic strategy.
Semafor has also set the event up as a moderated conversation rather than a traditional expo-style conference. The page lists Reed Albergotti, Semafor’s technology editor, and Bennett Richardson, Semafor’s general manager and global head of public affairs, as moderators. That suggests the program will lean more toward interviews and discussion than toward keynote-heavy product announcements.
For San Francisco, the event adds another AI-centered gathering to a 2026 calendar already crowded with conferences across software, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and developer tools. But Semafor Tech appears to occupy a more compact niche, built around public conversation and cross-sector discussion rather than large-scale product showcases. The event page says it has already reached capacity, pointing to strong demand for in-person AI programming in the city.
With Clark, Li, Hendrycks, Chase, Masad, Fogel, and Chan all on the official speaker list, alongside moderators Albergotti and Richardson, Semafor Tech: San Francisco is shaping up as a concentrated Bay Area event for AI, technology, and policy discussion. In San Francisco in May, it will bring together leaders from AI labs, academia, venture capital, developer platforms, corporate leadership, and government to examine what it will take to turn AI progress into broader real-world impact.
Read our coverage of SIGNAL 2026 for more on another San Francisco technology event focused on how companies are building customer engagement and software platforms.
