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Marc Benioff leads Salesforce to a 23% stock surge following a strong earnings report and new AI partnerships.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff oversaw a significant stock rally on Thursday, as shares jumped nearly 23% following a beat-and-raise earnings report. The company reported revenue of $11.35 billion, an 11% increase year-over-year, which exceeded analyst expectations. This growth was bolstered by the success of Agentforce AI products, which saw annualized revenue soar 240% to over $1.5 billion. Marc Benioff dismissed the "SaaSpocalypse" narrative, arguing that frontier AI models depend on CRM data rather than replacing it. To support this, Salesforce entered a new partnership with Anthropic to create "Claudeforce," a plug-in that integrates Claude with 37 prebuilt sales skills. The company also recorded a $2.6 billion gain from its investment in Anthropic. Analysts noted that while the stock has recovered much of its recent decline, investors should remain cautious about momentum. The results confirm Salesforce's position as a critical data repository for AI agents, which require trusted proprietary data to function effectively.

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