Salesforce jumps as $60 billion forecast eases revenue growth concerns

(Reuters) -Salesforce shares jumped more than 6% in premarket trading on Thursday, after the company forecast faster revenue growth in the coming years, easing concerns that AI tools were eroding demand for its software. The Marc Benioff-led company had posted its first revenue decline in about three years earlier this year, sparking fears that businesses focused on AI investments were cutting back on what has long been essential customer management software. That had knocked its stock by more than a quarter in 2025 so far. But the company's better-than-expected forecast of more than $60 billion revenue in 2030 allayed some of those fears. That forecast, unveiled at the company's Dreamforce event on Wednesday, excluded the boost from its planned $8 billion acquisition of software-maker Informatica. The deal, set to complete by the first half of next year, will bolster Salesforce's AI capabilities by integrating Informatica's data management tools into its cloud services. Salesforce also announced a $7 billion share buyback plan over the next six months, a move J.P.Morgan analysts said reflects "confidence in free cash flow durability and the near-term re-acceleration in bookings and eventually revenue". The new outlook "should help shift the narrative around Salesforce's business positively and toward the notion of sustainable double-digit growth", potentially easing investor concerns, analysts at J.P.Morgan said. Earlier this week, Salesforce expanded partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic to embed their advanced AI models into its Agentforce 360 platform, which has now been launched globally across its suite of cloud-based tools. The company has also said it would invest $15 billion in San Francisco over the next five years to accelerate AI adoption. Salesforce's "healthy pace of margin expansion" could bring it in line with large-cap peers by the end of the decade, Jefferies analysts said. (Reporting by Rashika Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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