Shares of Salesforce soared more than 20% on Thursday, putting the stock on track for its second-best day ever, after the company beat earnings expectations and announced an expanded partnership with AI startup Anthropic.
The surge trails only August 2020, when shares climbed roughly 26%, according to CNBC.
CEO Marc Benioff and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei appeared on CNBC to unveil a plugin called “Claudeforce,” designed to help salespeople access critical data through Anthropic’s Claude chatbot. The announcement fueled optimism across the software sector, lifting names like Adobe, Palantir, ServiceNow, Autodesk and Figma. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF rose roughly 5%.
The rally marks a sharp reversal for software stocks, which have been under pressure this year on fears that generative AI could disrupt the software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model. Benioff pushed back against that narrative on Wednesday’s earnings call.
“This is not the SaaSpocalypse,” Benioff said. “We’ve been hearing about this for the last two quarters, these dire predictions about the end of software and how the models eat everything, but none of them have come true for us.”
Earnings beat and AI investment gains
Salesforce reported revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, edging past the $11.32 billion expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG, and up 11% year over year. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $5.90, well above the $3.27 consensus estimate.
Net income rose 87% from a year ago to $3.53 billion, or $4.29 a share, compared with $1.89 billion, or $1.96 a share, in the year-ago period. The company also noted a $2.6 billion gain from its strategic investment in Anthropic, whose valuation has grown to $965 billion ahead of its highly anticipated initial public offering.
The strong results and AI tie-up helped restore confidence in Salesforce’s growth trajectory, even as broader concerns about AI disruption continue to weigh on the software sector. Investors appeared to reward the company’s ability to turn its AI bet into tangible financial gains.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/27/salesforce-stock-soars-on-track-for-second-best-day-ever.html
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