What it does
Salesforce is a customer relationship management technology company founded in 1999. Marc Benioff is Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. It sells cloud software that helps businesses keep customer information, sales activity, service cases, marketing, commerce, collaboration and business data in connected systems.
Its Agentforce 360 Platform combines applications, data, automation and AI agents. The platform is intended to give a customer one view of its customers across systems, applications and devices. Businesses can use it to manage sales pipelines, provide customer and field service, run marketing and commerce activity, connect systems through APIs, and analyze data.
Agentforce is the layer for building, deploying and managing autonomous AI agents. These agents can use Data 360 for context, follow permissions and business rules held in Salesforce metadata, and take actions through Salesforce applications and MuleSoft APIs. Slack is the conversational interface where employees and agents can work together, search knowledge and automate workflows.
Salesforce also offers industry-specific software for areas including financial services, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing, automotive and government. Starter Suite combines sales, service, marketing and commerce for small and medium-size businesses. The company sells to businesses of all sizes and in almost every industry worldwide.
How it makes money
Salesforce operates as one segment. It earns revenue mainly from subscription and support services, plus professional services and other revenue. Subscription and support represented approximately 95 percent of total revenue in fiscal 2026. Customers generally access its multi-tenant cloud services without taking possession of the software, and subscription revenue is generally recognized evenly over the contract term.
The company sells its services primarily through a direct sales force, with partners also referring leads and helping sell and implement products. It sells subscriptions spanning Agentforce Service, Agentforce Sales, Agentforce 360 Platform, Slack, Data 360, integration, analytics, marketing and commerce. Customers can buy individual offerings, while Salesforce seeks to sell more than one offering to the same customer.
Subscription revenue can also include term software licenses and paid support. Revenue from term licenses is generally recognized when the software is made available, while support and updates are generally recognized over the service period. Term software licenses were less than ten percent of subscription and support revenue in fiscal 2026.
Professional services include implementation support, digital-transformation advice, technical architects, business strategists and Forward Deployed Engineers. These services can support adoption of complex deployments and tailored AI agents.
Fiscal 2026 revenue was $41.5 billion; management said on the Q2 2027 earnings call that revenue rose 11.0% in Q2 FY2027. Agentforce annual recurring revenue reached $1.5 billion in Q2 FY2027, according to management.
| Product or service | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentforce Service | $9.1 billion | — | — |
| Agentforce Sales | $8.3 billion | — | — |
| Agentforce 360 Platform, Slack and Other | $7.2 billion | — | — |
| Agentforce Integration and Agentforce Analytics | $5.8 billion | — | — |
| Agentforce Marketing and Agentforce Commerce | $5.3 billion | — | — |
| Professional services and other | $2.2 billion | — | — |
Customers and how it sells
Salesforce serves businesses of all sizes, from customers with one paying subscription to customers with hundreds of thousands of subscriptions. No customer accounted for more than ten percent of revenue in fiscal 2026, 2025 or 2024. The company also states that it has no material dependency on a specific product, service or customer group.
It sells mainly through regional-hub and field sales teams, as well as self-service offerings. Global consulting firms, system integrators and other partners can refer leads and help sell to prospects; Salesforce typically pays these partners a fee based on first-year subscription revenue from referred customers. Partners also implement applications and provide technical expertise.
The Americas generated $27.2 billion, or 65.5%, of fiscal 2026 revenue. Europe generated $10.0 billion, or 24.1%, and Asia Pacific generated $4.3 billion, or 10.4%. Salesforce is expanding its international go-to-market capabilities and sells in most major markets.
Management said on the Q2 2027 earnings call that Deutsche Telekom, FIFA, NTT Data and Cisco were expanding their AI investment with Salesforce. Management also said Agentforce Life Sciences had more than 140 customers in Q2 FY2027.
| Region | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Americas | $25.1 billion | — | — |
| Europe | $8.9 billion | — | — |
| Asia Pacific | $3.9 billion | — | — |
Suppliers and costs
Salesforce delivers cloud application and platform services through cloud computing platform partners that provide infrastructure-as-a-service, including servers, storage, databases and networking. It also uses infrastructure it designs and operates within third-party data-center facilities. Hyperforce supports delivery in locations worldwide and gives customers local data-residency control.
Its multi-tenant architecture runs a single application instance for multiple organizations in virtual isolation. Salesforce states that this lets it spread service-delivery costs across its user base. Its cost base also includes sales and marketing, customer support, professional services, technology development, acquired-technology integration, employees and partner referral fees.
As of January 31, 2026, Salesforce had 83,334 employees. The company said it has undertaken restructuring initiatives involving workforce, office-space and data-center reductions in certain markets to improve operating margins.
- Revenue$41.5B
- Cost of revenue−$9.3B
- Research and development−$6.0B
- Selling, general and administrative−$17.3B
- Other operating costs−$586.0M
- Operating income$8.3B
Competitive position
Salesforce operates in a highly competitive, rapidly evolving and fragmented market with low barriers to entry. It competes with packaged business-software vendors, enterprise application providers, cloud application providers, AI-native companies, specialized software vendors, productivity and communications providers, platform-development companies and customers that build applications internally.
ServiceNow competes with Salesforce in IT service management. Management said on the Q1 2027 earnings call that McAfee selected Agentforce IT Service to replace ServiceNow. SAP is a back-office platform used by some Salesforce customers, while Salesforce positions itself around front-office software; management said on the Q2 2027 earnings call that customers may use Salesforce for the front office, SAP for the back office and Microsoft for productivity. Adobe’s Experience Cloud was reported on 23 October 2026 to compete with Salesforce.
Our reading: Salesforce’s integrated applications, shared customer-data layer, metadata and permissions are a meaningful platform moat because they connect existing workflows and data to agents without requiring customers to rebuild processes. This rests on the platform design described in item1 and the company’s account of data, application and semantic layers in call_prepared.
Our reading: The direct sales force, consulting partners, system integrators and AppExchange ecosystem strengthen distribution and implementation capabilities, but specialized and AI-native rivals can still compete in individual workloads. This assessment weighs item1 and item1a.
| Competitor | Where they compete | Threat (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| ServiceNow | IT service management | Medium |
| SAP | enterprise back-office software | Medium |
| Adobe | customer experience software | Medium |
Growth opportunities
Salesforce’s growth strategy centers on expanding relationships with existing customers, selling multiple service offerings, increasing enterprise and international penetration, and extending industry-specific software. The company seeks to cross-sell additional subscriptions into new functional areas and business units, while adding support offerings and developing channels through partners and marketplaces.
The company is investing in Agentforce, Data 360, Slack, AI-enabled applications, integration and analytics. It also uses acquisitions and investments to add technology, products and talent. Informatica closed in fiscal 2026 and contributed approximately $0.4 billion of revenue during that year.
Management said on the Q2 2027 earnings call that CloudForce would become generally available in September. Management said customers will need premium editions to buy CloudForce. It also said it plans to hire 1,200 account executives before year-end and expects to reach 15,000 account executives.
Management said on the Q2 2027 earnings call that Agentforce bookings grew triple digit year on year and that 2,000 paying customers entered production during the quarter. Management also said customers drove 3.2 billion agentic work units in Q2 FY2027, up 97% quarter over quarter. Salesforce expects $200.0 million of contribution from anticipated Contentful and FIN closings in FY2027.
- $26.5BFY2022
- $31.4BFY2023
- $34.9BFY2024
- $37.9BFY2025
- $41.5BFY2026
- $0.12FY2027 guidance
Structural risks
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A breach or compromise involving Salesforce, customers, partners, cloud providers, data-center providers, other vendors or Internet infrastructure could expose or disrupt data and systems. The company states this could lead customers to reduce or terminate use, and could cause reputational harm, legal liability, regulatory scrutiny and financial effects.
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The company operates in intensely competitive markets. AI-native companies and emerging startups can offer specialized autonomous or automated tools that bypass established workflows or user interfaces.
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Privacy laws, AI regulation, cloud-computing rules, data-protection requirements and restrictions on cross-border data transfers can affect the business. International operations also face geopolitical events, localization costs, currency movements, differing pricing environments and rules that can favor local competitors.
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Acquisitions can create integration, security, customer-retention, operational, tax, regulatory and financial risks. The company cites challenges integrating acquired technologies, people, controls and revenue-recognition practices.
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Subscription revenue is generally recognized over the subscription term. As a result, downturns or upturns in new business may not immediately appear in operating results. Fourth-quarter new business and renewals are historically important to annual billings.
Bottom line
Our reading
Our reading: Salesforce is a subscription software business built around a broad CRM platform, with sales, service, data, integration, analytics and collaboration applications linked to AI agents. Its recurring-revenue model is supported by direct sales, partners and a global customer base, while cloud-infrastructure dependence and a large employee base shape its operating costs.
Our reading: The company’s expansion depends on persuading existing and new customers to use more of the platform and to deploy Agentforce, Data 360, Slack and new AI interfaces. Competition, cybersecurity exposure, regulation, international operations and acquisition integration remain material constraints.