Salesforce Beats Estimates and Partners with Anthropic, Stock Surges 20%

Salesforce Inc. shares surged as much as 20% on Thursday after the enterprise software giant reported a comprehensive second-quarter earnings beat and raised its full-year outlook.

CRM stock jumped following the earnings release. Click here for real-time price action.

Anthropic Stake Drives Profit Leap

Revenue rose 11% year-over-year to $11.35 billion in the quarter, slightly above analyst expectations of $11.32 billion. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $5.90, far exceeding the consensus estimate of $3.27.

The profit surge was largely attributable to Salesforce's investment portfolio, as the company recorded a $2.6 billion gain on its stake in AI startup Anthropic.

Fiscal 2027 Guidance Raised

Salesforce management also lifted its fiscal 2027 targets. Full-year revenue guidance was raised to a range of $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, up from the prior range of $45.9 billion to $46.2 billion.

Adjusted EPS guidance was raised even more significantly, from $14.06-$14.12 previously to $16.67-$16.71, reflecting both operational momentum and a reduced share count. CFO Robin Washington attributed the upgrade to continued strength in Agentforce, Data 360, and Slack.

Claudeforce

The stock rally accelerated after Salesforce and Anthropic announced an expanded partnership around a new product called Claudeforce.

According to CNBC, the tool allows salespeople to pull Salesforce data and complete tasks directly within Anthropic's Claude chatbot, launching with 37 pre-built skills covering email and record updates. This marks the first time Salesforce has attached its iconic "force" suffix to another company's product.

Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei told CNBC that his company invested "enormous effort" in managing data permissions for the integration, adding that the two companies are building "enterprise frontier safety guardrails" to protect customer information privacy and prevent models from taking actions beyond their intended scope. For now, broader access remains limited to pilot customers, with a wider preview expected next month.

Whatever Happened to the SaaS Doom Narrative?

The partnership marks a sharp reversal of the "SaaS doom" narrative from earlier this year, when concerns that Anthropic's Claude and other AI agents would render traditional SaaS platforms obsolete sent Salesforce shares into a prolonged slump.

Salesforce's second-quarter results, combined with a partnership built directly on Claude, have completely upended the SaaS doom thesis.

CRM price action: As of Thursday's writing, Salesforce shares were up 20.88% at $248.55.