Salesforce Soars on AI Partnership & Earnings Beat

Salesforce shares experienced a significant surge of 12.8% in after-hours trading, driven by stellar fiscal second-quarter 2027 results that surpassed all key Wall Street expectations. The cloud software giant reported revenue of $11.35 billion, an 11% increase year-over-year, and a striking 87% rise in net income to $3.53 billion, or $4.29 per share. A substantial $2.6 billion gain from strategic investments in AI startup Anthropic was a major contributor to this profit increase.

The company also provided a significantly upgraded full-year outlook, projecting adjusted earnings per share between $16.67 and $16.71 on revenue of $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion. This upward revision indicates strong future performance expectations. Further fueling investor enthusiasm, Salesforce announced an expanded strategic partnership with Anthropic, unveiling "Claudeforce." This new initiative allows salespeople to access critical data directly within Anthropic's Claude chatbot, launching with 37 pre-built sales skills designed to streamline tasks such as composing emails and updating records.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff heralded Claudeforce as "a dynamic interface that thinks, reasons, and acts." The stock's impressive performance occurred against a backdrop of minimal gains in the broader market, highlighting the company-specific drivers of this rally. Salesforce's dual exposure to Anthropic, as both an investor benefiting from valuation gains and a customer integrating its AI models, appears to have decisively shifted investor sentiment following these robust financial results and strategic advancements.