Salesforce Inc. stock gained 2.1% in pre-open trading following public comments by CEO Marc Benioff about a substantial investment in Anthropic AI tokens. Benioff told podcast listeners the company could direct nearly $300 million toward Anthropic tokens in 2026, with the majority of that spending allocated to AI-assisted coding and software development use cases.
On the "All-In" podcast, Benioff elaborated that "I am going to probably use $300 million of Anthropic this year at Salesforce. Coding. Everything's going to be cheaper to make." He stressed that the intent is not to supplant engineers, but to accelerate their ability to build and deploy software.
Salesforce has positioned its Agentforce 360 platform to allow customers to select from multiple large language model providers, including OpenAI and Anthropic. That neutral stance is meant to present Salesforce as an infrastructure layer that supports different model options rather than committing to a single provider.
Benioff also noted a milestone for Agentforce 360, saying the platform has passed approximately $800 million in annual recurring revenue. That figure, coupled with the CEO's concrete spending plan for Anthropic tokens, helped set a positive tone for the stock in early trading.
Despite the upbeat headlines, some Wall Street analysts remain cautious. Bank of America analyst Tal Liani warned that, while Salesforce remains a well-established platform, the company faces what he described as "a structural reset driven by AI transition" that raises several concerns: "muted net new customer additions, limited upsell potential, and an underwhelming AI monetization pathway." Liani added, "Therefore, we model structurally lower growth, at ~10% annually."
The pre-market rise in Salesforce shares also reflected a partial rebound across the software-as-a-service sector after what market participants have referred to as the "SaaS Rout of 2026." The prevailing fear that AI might wholly disrupt traditional SaaS offerings has shown signs of easing, as observers point to entrenched enterprise relationships, proprietary customer data, and deep workflow integrations as advantages for incumbent companies.
Sector peer ServiceNow took part in the recovery as well. The broader market backdrop was mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.3% while the NASDAQ Composite was down 0.5% in early trading.
On the analyst sentiment front, the Bank of America view sits against a broader Street consensus: of the 52 analysts covering Salesforce, 39 carry buy or strong buy ratings. The contrast between the majority bullish analyst stance and BofA's more cautious modeling highlights divergent expectations for Salesforce's transition to monetizing AI capabilities.
Other market dynamics likely drew attention from buyers. Salesforce shares were trading not far above their 52-week low of $163.52 and moved toward the $183.25 area in pre-market action. The proximity to that low point, the CEO's clear AI spending commitment, and the softening of sectorwide disruption fears appear to have combined to attract demand ahead of the opening bell.
Takeaway: Benioff's announced commitment to Anthropic tokens and Agentforce 360's reported run rate helped lift Salesforce stock in pre-market trading, but skeptical analyst forecasts and mixed broader-market cues underscore ongoing uncertainty about AI-driven revenue growth.