Salesforce Shares Rally 20% Following Q2 Earnings Beat and Anthropic AI Integration

Enterprise software provider Salesforce saw its stock surge more than 20% on Thursday following better-than-expected second-quarter financial results and the announcement of a expanded partnership with frontier artificial intelligence lab Anthropic.

The rally positioned Salesforce for its second-strongest trading day in corporate history, behind only an August 2020 session in which shares climbed roughly 26%, as first reported by CNBC Business. The surge triggered a wider market rebound across software equities, driving gains for industry peers such as Adobe, Palantir, ServiceNow, Autodesk, and Figma. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF climbed approximately 5% during the trading session.

Appearing on CNBC alongside Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei, Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff revealed a joint project named "Claudeforce." The technology features a custom plugin designed to connect Salesforce corporate data into Anthropic's Claude chatbot, enabling sales representatives to query and retrieve core customer records directly within the conversation interface.

The market reaction provided relief to an enterprise software sector that has faced investor headwinds throughout the year over concerns that generative artificial intelligence platforms could cannibalize traditional software-as-a-service revenue models.

Addressing those ongoing market concerns on the company's earnings call, Benioff rejected arguments that foundation models threaten core business applications. "This is not the SaaSpocalypse," Benioff told investors. "We've been hearing about this for 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."

For the second quarter, Salesforce generated $11.35 billion in revenue, up 11% year-over-year, beating consensus expectations of $11.32 billion calculated by LSEG analysts. Adjusted earnings per share reached $5.90, significantly outperforming Wall Street estimates of $3.27 per share.

Net income for the quarter surged 87% to $3.53 billion, or $4.29 per share, compared to $1.89 billion, or $1.96 per share, in the corresponding period last year.

The enterprise giant also recorded a $2.6 billion gain resulting from its strategic equity stake in Anthropic. The AI lab's private valuation has risen to $965 billion as the startup prepares for an anticipated initial public offering.