Salesforce Stock Soars 19% as Blowout Earnings and Agentforce AI Growth Silence Software Skeptics

SAN FRANCISCO — Salesforce shares surged Thursday, climbing as much as 19% to $244.72, after the enterprise software giant delivered a blowout quarterly earnings report that far exceeded Wall Street expectations and raised its full-year revenue guidance, driven largely by explosive growth in its Agentforce artificial intelligence platform.

The stock jumped $39.10 in trading Thursday morning, extending gains that began after the company reported its fiscal second-quarter results Wednesday evening. The move marked one of Salesforce's strongest single-day performances in recent memory, following a report that Wall Street analysts described as its most convincing beat in several quarters.

A quarter that crushed estimates

Salesforce reported fiscal 2027 second-quarter revenue of $11.345 billion for the period ended July 31, up nearly 11% from a year earlier and slightly above Street estimates of roughly $11.32 billion. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $5.90, obliterating analyst expectations of around $3.27 per share, a beat of more than 80%.

Net income climbed to $3.53 billion, or $4.29 per diluted share, up 87% from $1.89 billion, or $1.96 per share, a year earlier. A significant portion of that jump was driven by a roughly $2.6 billion gain tied to Salesforce's strategic investment in AI startup Anthropic, which was valued at $965 billion following a funding round earlier this year. Free cash flow also spiked 81% to $1.10 billion, well above the consensus estimate of about $643 million.

Agentforce becomes the story

While the headline numbers impressed investors, the bigger driver behind Thursday's rally was Salesforce's rapidly accelerating AI business. Annual recurring revenue from Agentforce and the company's Data 360 platform reached nearly $3.9 billion, up more than 210% year over year, while Agentforce revenue alone exceeded $1.5 billion, growing more than 240% from the prior year.

Salesforce also reported that current remaining performance obligation, a forward-looking measure of contracted revenue expected to be recognized over the next year, reached $33.5 billion, topping analyst expectations of $33.22 billion, according to figures compiled by StreetAccount.

On the earnings call, Salesforce executives directly pushed back against skeptics who had questioned whether AI agents would disrupt the company's traditional software business. One executive described a surge in AI-driven platform usage on the call, saying, "Agentic use of the platform surged sixfold via Model Context Protocol calls," according to a transcript published by Investing.com. Executives also noted that customer attrition remained near its lowest level ever, seat counts across Agentforce, Sales, Service and Slack grew year over year, and contract lengths improved across all business segments — trends they framed as a direct rebuttal to fears that generative AI models would erode demand for traditional customer relationship management software.

Raised guidance adds fuel

Beyond the quarterly beat, Salesforce raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, a signal to investors that management expects the current momentum in AI-related bookings to continue through the rest of the fiscal year. The company also announced an expanded partnership with Anthropic, deepening ties between the two companies as Salesforce continues integrating advanced AI models into its platform.

A stock that had fallen sharply before rebounding

Thursday's surge represents a dramatic reversal for a stock that had struggled for much of 2026. As of Wednesday's close, Salesforce shares were down roughly 22% year to date, even as the broader S&P 500 index had gained about 12% over the same period. That underperformance stemmed largely from investor anxiety earlier in the year that generative AI tools, including agentic systems built by companies like Anthropic, could render traditional enterprise software increasingly obsolete — fears that contributed to a broader roughly $2 trillion sell-off across software stocks industry-wide in early 2026.

Sentiment had already begun shifting in the weeks leading up to Thursday's earnings report, however. Salesforce shares climbed 25% over the month heading into the report, fueled by growing investor confidence in Agentforce's traction, alongside a $27.5 billion stock buyback program covering roughly 10% of the company's fully diluted share count. Prediction market Polymarket had assigned a 91% probability to Salesforce beating earnings expectations ahead of Wednesday's release, according to Yahoo Finance.

Part of a broader tech rally

Salesforce's surge came amid a broader rally across technology stocks Thursday, as strong earnings from chipmaker Nvidia and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike also lifted the sector. The combined strength across multiple high-profile tech earnings reports helped push the Nasdaq Composite higher in early trading, with investors treating the results as evidence that enterprise and consumer demand for AI-related products remains robust despite months of volatility in tech valuations.

What it means going forward

For Salesforce, Thursday's rally represents a pivotal moment in the company's yearslong effort to convince investors that its bet on AI agents can drive sustained growth rather than simply defend against disruption. With Agentforce annual recurring revenue more than tripling year over year and management projecting continued momentum through the rest of the fiscal year, the quarter offered some of the clearest evidence yet that the company's AI strategy is translating into measurable financial results.

Still, analysts noted that the key question going forward is whether this quarter's rapid growth can be sustained in the periods ahead, rather than representing a temporary surge tied to early enterprise adoption. Investors will be watching subsequent quarters closely for confirmation that Agentforce's momentum can continue at a similar pace, particularly as competition in the enterprise AI space continues to intensify among software providers racing to integrate agentic capabilities into their platforms.