King Charles III And Queen Camilla State Visit Continues In Washington DC

Britain’s King Charles III speaks with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff (Ken Cedeno/Getty Images)

Salesforce beats expectations for revenue, earnings

The SaaS company reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 earnings after the bell Wednesday.

Salesforce reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 earnings Wednesday that beat analysts’ expectations. The company posted:

Revenue of $11.1 billion, compared with Wall Street’s $11.05 billion expectation.
Non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $3.88, versus the FactSet analyst consensus estimate of $3.13.
Fiscal year 2027 revenue guidance of $45.9 billion to $46.2 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $14.06 to $14.12. While the revenue guidance was on the light side, EPS guidance grew notably. Analysts had penciled in $46.1 billion for revenue and $13.23 for EPS, while the company said last quarter that it expected revenue of $45.80 billion to $46.20 billion and adjusted EPS of $13.11 to $13.19 for the full year. That massive bump in EPS guidance was heavily driven by the company executing a $25 billion accelerated share repurchase, which included the up-front retirement of 103 million shares.

Prior to reporting earnings, the stock was down more than 30% this year, as it struggles with competition from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, whose AI tools threaten to undercut its product suite. Analysts (like Bank of America, which reinstated coverage of the stock with an “underperform” rating last week) worry that AI agents will automate tasks and reduce the need for per-seat software licenses — the core engine of Salesforce’s business

Ahead of earnings, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said that while there’s a “disconnect between the underlying business and the prevailing narrative,” the company needs to “turn the CRM AI growth narrative around by execution... not just words and it starts this quarter.”

The core focus of the earnings call will be whether Agentforce — the company’s new platform for autonomous AI agents — is translating into real revenue growth or if it remains early-stage.

For now, the answer appears to be real growth. Agentforce annual recurring revenue jumped to $1.2 billion, up 205% from last year and from $800 million last quarter.

Google DeepMind’s Hassabis: AGI is 3 to 4 years away

Google DeepMind CEO and Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis shortened his prediction for when the era of AGI would be upon us.

Jon Keegan, Rani Molla2h

Rani Molla3h

Meta jumps after announcing paid subscriptions for Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and AI

On Wednesday, Meta announced that it’s rolling out Meta One, a suite of paid versions of its most popular apps that offer extra features like profile customization, super reactions, and story insights. Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus will cost $3.99 a month, while WhatsApp Plus is going for $2.99, according to TechCrunch.

The company is also launching two AI subscription tiers — one for $7.99 and another for $19.99 for more advanced users. People can continue using the Meta AI chatbot for free, but will now run into limits.

Together, these represent Meta’s first large-scale attempt to monetize everyday consumer use of its flagship apps through subscriptions rather than relying solely on advertising.

The stock is up nearly 3% on the news.

Meta’s head of product, Naomi Gleit, said in an Instagram post that the company has “more plans on the way for creators, businesses, and Meta AI power users.”

Meta has struggled to justify its enormous AI capital expenditure to investors since it lacks the recurring cloud revenue of its peers. New subscription revenue streams could help reassure investors that Meta has additional ways to monetize its AI investments beyond advertising.

TechCrunch reported earlier this year that Meta had been testing premium subscriptions.

Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions, with more to come, including AI plans | TechCrunch

Together, these represent Meta’s first large-scale attempt to monetize everyday consumer use of its flagship apps through subscriptions rather than relying solely on advertising.

The stock is up nearly 3% on the news.

Meta’s head of product, Naomi Gleit, said in an Instagram post that the company has “more plans on the way for creators, businesses, and Meta AI power users.”

TechCrunch reported earlier this year that Meta had been testing premium subscriptions.

37%

Rani Molla4h

Uber raised its stake in Germany-based Delivery Hero to nearly 37%, up from the 19.5% the companies disclosed earlier this month, according to reporting by the Financial Times. The rapid share accumulation follows a takeover bid Uber extended to the struggling food delivery company over the weekend, offering essentially no premium over where the stock is trading, a move aimed at aggressively countering DoorDash in international markets.

DoorDash is also circling, with reports suggesting it is primarily interested in carving out Delivery Hero’s lucrative Middle Eastern businesses like Talabat and HungerStation.

Jon Keegan & Hyunsoo Rim6h

Anthropic’s revenue continues to surge, shooting past OpenAI

The drip, drip, drip of leaked financials from OpenAI and Anthropic is turning into a steady flow as the two AI giants jockey for position ahead of their planned IPOs later this year.

The companies’ soaring valuations and annualized recurring revenue (ARR) have been running neck and neck for months, and The Information now reports that Anthropic is generating an estimated 35% more revenue than OpenAI.

According to The Information’s reporting, Anthropic is close to a staggering $45 billion ARR, while OpenAI is at an estimated $33 billion ARR.

Anthropic Nears $45 billion in ARR — (Chartr)

Last month, Anthropic announced that its ARR had reached $30 billion — tripling since the end of 2025. That put it ahead of OpenAI’s $24 billion ARR, which the ChatGPT maker reported at the end of March.

Then last week it was reported that OpenAI held a $1 billion lead in Q1 revenue over Anthropic.

That $45 billion ARR is a whopping 5x the $9 billion Anthropic reported at the end of 2025.

Anthropic Is Likely Generating at Least 35% More Revenue Than OpenAI

According to The Information’s reporting, Anthropic is close to a staggering $45 billion ARR, while OpenAI is at an estimated $33 billion ARR.

Then last week it was reported that OpenAI held a $1 billion lead in Q1 revenue over Anthropic.

That $45 billion ARR is a whopping 5x the $9 billion Anthropic reported at the end of 2025.

Rani Molla9h

Tesla is recovering in Europe. BYD is still beating it.

Tesla’s recovery across Europe continued last month, but it still lags BYD, according to new data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. In April, BYD registered more than twice as many cars as Tesla in the EU, UK, and the European Free Trade Association. It’s also growing faster, with BYD up 115% compared with April 2025, while Tesla grew 47% in that time. Year-to-date registration data tells a similar story.

Tesla thinks upcoming approval of its supervised Full Self-Driving tech is integral to its success on the continent.

“It’s worth noting that we do not actually yet have approval for supervised FSD in Europe,” CEO Elon Musk said during an earnings call last year. “So our sales in Europe, we think, will improve significantly once we are able to give customers the same experience that they have in the US.”

Tesla recently received approval for a version of its supervised FSD in the Netherlands, its first European market, and expects “EU-wide” approval in the second or third quarter of this year.

European vehicle regulators could potentially vote on the issue in July.