Salesforce beats estimates, expands Anthropic partnership with Claudeforce plugin

For the fiscal third quarter, Salesforce guided to adjusted earnings of $3.42 to $3.44 per share and revenue of $11.42 billion to $11.50 billion, both above the consensus forecasts of $3.38 and $11.41 billion.

According to CNBC, Salesforce shares rose in extended trading after the announcement, but reports differed on the size of the gain. One CNBC report cited an 8% rise, while another said the stock surged more than 12%. Shares had been down about 22% for the year through Wednesday's close, as investors worried that AI tools from companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI could replace traditional software subscriptions.

The expanded partnership introduces “Claudeforce,” a plugin that lets salespeople access Salesforce customer data directly inside Anthropic’s Claude chatbot. The companies said the plugin launches with 37 pre-built sales skills, enabling users to compose emails, update records and take other actions. They plan to add more integrations across Claude, Salesforce and Slack in the future.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff rejected the “SaaSpocalypse” narrative on Wednesday. “This SaaSpocalypse narrative has been such nonsense,” Benioff told CNBC’s Jim Cramer. “Frontier models depend on CRM. They don't replace it.” He noted that nine of the ten leading AI companies use Salesforce and Slack, with spending on those platforms up 435% from a year ago. “Salesforce is first and foremost in the data business,” he said. “These AI models need this level of intelligence, security and controls for users.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the partnership lets companies point Claude at customer information and business context stored in Salesforce for decades, surfacing insights and helping businesses run more efficiently and grow more quickly. Anthropic has experienced explosive growth this year, recently telling investors that its annualized revenue run rate hit $65 billion at the end of July, a sevenfold increase from a year earlier. In May, Anthropic raised equity funding that valued the company at $965 billion, and Salesforce’s stake contributed a $2.6 billion investment gain to its quarterly results.

Claudeforce is available to a select group of pilot customers and will launch in a preview capacity next month. Additional pre-built skills are expected later this year.