"AI is not a gravedigger": Bank of America turns bullish on Salesforce (CRM.US), $30 million acquisition sparks software stock revaluation

Zhihu Finance APP noted that Salesforce (CRM.US) became the focus of the US software sector on Monday: the company announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Israeli AI analytics startup Loops, and plans to integrate its technology and team into Tableau. Almost simultaneously, Bank of America made the rare move of upgrading the stock directly from "underperform" to "buy," raising the target price from $160 to $285.

With the double boost, Salesforce surged as much as 5.1% intraday and still closed up about 1.5%.

From the deal perspective, this is a typical “technology + talent” acquisition. Neither party disclosed the terms, but the market estimates the transaction amount at around $30 million, expected to be completed in early Salesforce fiscal 2027.

Loops was founded in 2020 by CEO Tom Laufer and CTO Ido Adiv. Its platform excels at machine learning and causal analysis, focusing on answering “why did the metrics change” rather than just “what happened.” Last year, the AI agent Scout was launched, which can actively push insights via Slack and email. Salesforce stated the acquisition will advance its “agent-driven analytics” strategy, allowing customers to move from simply viewing reports to having AI directly drive action.

Analysts’ views are the real driver of this rebound. In his report, Bank of America analyst Tal Liani stated bluntly that AI will not disrupt enterprise software but instead “deepen companies’ reliance on these platforms”—platforms that house business logic, data, workflows, and compliance systems are difficult for customers to replace.

Bank of America pointed out that Salesforce has adopted a “two-pronged” strategy—on one hand leveraging Slack to control user interactions, on the other opening data and workflows to third-party interfaces like Claude. This approach could potentially weaken Salesforce’s own user interface. “Therefore, we believe Salesforce’s approach is a pragmatic hedging strategy—controlling the user interface as much as possible through Slackforce, while also providing external interface access, thereby keeping data and its context within the company,” the analysts stated.

Bank of America also raised its subscription revenue growth forecasts for fiscal 2028 and 2029, and anchored its valuation at 16 times the projected 2027 free cash flow. Notably, in May this year, Liani had also warned of AI’s structural impact on enterprise software. This “self-reversal” is being interpreted as the sell side’s collective surrender of pessimism toward enterprise software.

Fundamentals are providing further ammunition for the bulls. In the second fiscal quarter ending in late July, Agentforce's annualized recurring revenue (ARR) surpassed $1.5 billion, up over 240% year-on-year. Agentforce and Data 360 had a combined ARR of nearly $3.9 billion, growing over 210%. Current remaining performance obligations were up about 14% year-on-year to $33.5 billion. The company is also advancing a new usage-based pricing model to hedge concerns over “AI replacing software seats.”

Of course, cautious voices have not disappeared. Bears point out that AI-related revenue is still relatively low, and if customer adoption slows, financial realization could be delayed. The relatively high short interest also reflects that some capital remains on the sidelines.

Overall, this $30 million acquisition alone is not enough to rewrite Salesforce’s revenue curve, but it coincides with a turning point in sentiment among the sell side. A consensus is emerging in the market: AI is not the “gravedigger” of enterprise software, but could become a new source of pricing power. The next earnings report will test whether this optimistic narrative can be realized.