Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) just gave investors a lot to chew on. The enterprise software giant reported its fiscal second-quarter 2027 results after the bell on Wednesday, and the numbers were, in a word, impressive. But the real headline might be the surprise partnership with Anthropic, the AI lab behind Claude, which has Wall Street buzzing.
Let's start with the numbers. Salesforce delivered revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, edging past the consensus estimate of $11.32 billion. Adjusted earnings came in at $5.90 per share, absolutely crushing the expected $3.27 per share. That's not a typo. Revenue was up 11% year-over-year, and the company exited the quarter with total remaining performance obligations of $66.5 billion, also up 11%.
Cash flow looked healthy too. Operating cash flow was $1.3 billion, with free cash flow at $1.1 billion. The company's cash pile stood at about $8.3 billion at quarter's end.
CEO Marc Benioff was clearly in a celebratory mood. "We just delivered one of our best quarters ever, outperforming across every key metric," he said. "AI is delivering value across every layer of our platform. We're seeing incredible demand for our AI and data products, with ARR about to cross $4 billion."
Looking ahead, Salesforce expects third-quarter revenue to land between $11.42 billion and $11.50 billion, slightly above the $11.41 billion analysts were looking for. Adjusted earnings for the quarter are projected at $3.42 to $3.44 per share, versus estimates of $3.37.
For the full fiscal year 2027, the company raised its revenue outlook to a range of $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, up from the previous $45.9 billion to $46.2 billion. The adjusted earnings guidance got a big boost too, now expected at $16.67 to $16.71 per share, compared to the prior range of $14.06 to $14.12 and well above the $14.14 consensus.
But the real showstopper came with the announcement of a "Claudeforce" partnership with Anthropic. The idea is to fuse Claude's advanced reasoning capabilities with Salesforce's enterprise platform, combining AI intelligence with the trusted data, workflows, and governance that businesses rely on. Benioff framed it as a game-changer: "By fusing Claude's extraordinary reasoning with the trusted data, workflows, and governance every enterprise runs on, we're delivering a dynamic interface that thinks, reasons, and acts. This is how every business will run."
Investors seem to like what they're hearing. Salesforce shares were up 13.93% in after-hours trading, sitting at $234.75 at the time of publication. That's a solid vote of confidence in both the quarter and the AI strategy.
Management will discuss the details on an earnings call scheduled for 5 p.m. ET, so there's likely more color to come. For now, it looks like Salesforce is betting big on AI, and the market is buying it.
