Salesforce stock jumps as Wall Street reacts to earnings, Anthropic partnership

Salesforce just posted the kind of quarter that makes investors forget about a rough year. The enterprise software giant reported fiscal Q2 2027 revenue of $11.35 billion, an 11% jump year-over-year, and adjusted earnings per share of $5.90 that blew past Wall Street expectations. Shares surged roughly 13% in after-hours trading on August 26, clawing back a meaningful chunk of the stock’s 22% decline earlier in the year.

That $5.90 EPS figure includes approximately $2.6 billion in paper gains from Salesforce’s investment in Anthropic, the AI lab behind Claude. Strip that out, and the beat is more modest. Still a beat, though.

The Anthropic factor

Salesforce and Anthropic announced a strategic partnership that produced something called “Claudeforce,” which integrates Anthropic’s Claude AI model directly into Salesforce’s enterprise platforms, including Agentforce and Slack.

Salesforce’s investment in Anthropic is now valued at approximately $5 billion following Anthropic’s May 2026 funding round. That position alone represents a significant portion of Salesforce’s market cap, and the $2.6 billion unrealized gain flowing through this quarter’s earnings illustrates just how intertwined the two companies’ fortunes have become.

Management was explicit about one point during the call: the Anthropic partnership and Claudeforce launch are designed to counter the narrative that generative AI will eat traditional enterprise software for lunch. Their argument is that even the most powerful AI models still need trusted enterprise data, established business processes, and governance frameworks to be useful in corporate settings. Salesforce happens to sell all three.

AI revenue is no longer a rounding error

The most striking number in the entire report might be this one: combined annualized recurring revenue from Agentforce and Data 360 reached nearly $3.9 billion, a 210% increase year-over-year. Agentforce alone accounts for roughly $1.5 billion of that figure.

Salesforce raised its full-year FY27 revenue guidance to a range of $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, a signal that AI demand isn’t a one-quarter blip but something the company expects to sustain through the fiscal year.

What the stock move tells us

Shares reached between $231 and $234 in after-hours trading, effectively reversing several weeks of selling pressure.

The Anthropic paper gains do introduce some volatility risk. A $2.6 billion unrealized gain can become an unrealized loss if Anthropic’s valuation retreats. Investors buying into the post-earnings rally should understand that a meaningful portion of the EPS beat is tied to a mark-to-market position, not recurring cash flow.

The underlying business metrics tell a genuinely strong story independent of the Anthropic gains. Double-digit revenue growth, rapidly scaling AI products, and raised guidance form a trio that would have moved the stock higher even without the investment windfall.

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