After releasing its latest financial report, Salesforce's stock price soared by 20%, driving the software sector stronger. On the same day, the company announced the launch of a new AI plugin in collaboration with Anthropic. Consequently, market concerns regarding the impact of generative AI on the SaaS model were somewhat alleviated.

Financial report exceeds expectations

The company's revenue for the quarter was $11.35 billion, exceeding market expectations of $11.32 billion, and representing a year-over-year increase of 11%. The adjusted earnings per share were $5.90, which is also significantly higher than analysts' forecast of $3.27.

As discussions about the impact of generative AI on the software industry continue to heat up, this financial report has become a direct factor driving up stock prices. Previously, software stocks have been under pressure this year, as the market feared that large models would weaken the pricing power and use value of SaaS products.

Claudeforce makes its official debut

Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announced a plugin named Claudeforce during the CNBC program. This product is based on the Claude chatbot and is primarily aimed at sales personnel to access key business data.

Benioff stated during the financial report conference call that the external speculation that SaaS would be replaced by generative AI has not materialized in the company's business. He mentioned that the pessimistic forecasts from the past two quarters have not been validated in Salesforce.

Anthropic Investment Returns Emerge

The company also stated that its strategic investment in Anthropic resulted in a profit of $2.6 billion. Meanwhile, before the highly anticipated initial public offering of Anthropic, its valuation has risen to $965 billion.

Financial reports exceeding expectations, the advancement of AI product collaborations, and the return on investment in Anthropic all contributed to a recovery in market sentiment, also making Salesforce one of the main drivers of the rise in software stocks on that day.