$CRM

Apple (AAPL) and Salesforce (CRM) reported earnings beats, but investors question agentic AI's impact on durable earnings. Apple's revenue rose 16.4% to $109.42B, driven by iPhone 17. Salesforce's Agentforce ARR exceeded $1.5B, but total revenue grew only 10.8%. Both companies face challenges in monetizing AI and supply constraints.

Salesforce's Chief Data Officer Michael Andrew discussed the company's AI strategy, emphasizing flexibility in choosing models like Koa, Claude, or ChatGPT for different tasks. Koa, trained on 27 years of CRM data, is designed for enterprise workflows. The interview highlights the need for adaptability in AI models, though no new products were announced.

Salesforce (CRM) stock has declined 3.8% over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500. The company aims to drive growth by upgrading customers to premium editions with AI features. Only 5% of users have upgraded, but those using AI agents spend twice as much annually. Agentforce, the AI product, generated $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue, a small fraction of the company's $43.9 billion total revenue. Management targets $63 billion in revenue by fiscal 2030.

Bank of America warns of growing market risks, including higher interest rates and geopolitical tensions, despite strong earnings growth in tech and power sectors. The bank expects 32% EPS growth in Q3 but cautions about 2027 risks. Bank of America analysts highlight Salesforce (CRM) and Diodes (DIOD) as attractive investment opportunities, citing their AI strategies and strong financial performance.

GitHub's secret scanning now detects and blocks new secret types from Salesforce, Anthropic, and Cloudsmith. Salesforce joins as a secret scanning partner, allowing GitHub to forward detected secrets for revocation. Anthropic secrets are blocked by default with push protection. The update aims to enhance security for repository users.

Argano acquired Oktana, a Salesforce Summit Partner, to boost its AI, data, and digital engineering consulting services. Oktana's 227 employees and 1,100 Salesforce certifications will join Argano. The deal is Argano's 15th since April 2025 and 31st since 2020. Oktana's data and AI services made up 75% of its Q1 2026 revenue. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Salesforce's Winter '27 release introduces features for developers and security, including headless agent workflows, MCP Risk Scores for third-party server security, and agent-generated code governance. Key updates aim to streamline development, enhance security, and ensure compliance. All features are generally available unless noted.

Docusign (DOCU) expanded its partnership with Salesforce (CRM), integrating its Intelligent Agreement Management platform into Salesforce, Agentforce, and Slack. The integration allows users to manage agreements within Salesforce's ecosystem, including contract generation, negotiation, and analytics. The companies have partnered for over 20 years.

Adobe (ADBE) and Salesforce (CRM) reported earnings beats, but AI cannibalization impacts them differently. Salesforce's Agentforce ARR grew 240% YoY to $1.5B, while Adobe's AI-first ARR grew 150% to $650M. Adobe's freemium strategy led to a 36-37% YoY drop in net new ARR. Salesforce shares fell 11.14% YTD, while Adobe's dropped 31.96%. Adobe was downgraded to Sell on growth concerns.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 closed lower due to chipmaker weakness. Meta (META) launched a new AI model, Microsoft (MSFT) plans AI chips, Chipotle (CMG) shares rose after Starbucks (SBUX) denied acquisition talks, Bumble (BMBL) surged on potential buyout, and Snap (SNAP) shares rose on bullish bets. Earnings season begins with JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo reporting.