Snowflake and Salesforce Walk Into Earnings — One Crushes It, One Gets a Participation Trophy
Earnings week delivered a tale of two cloud giants — one rewrote its narrative, one left upside on the table
Ticker Ratings
$SNOW dropped the kind of earnings print that makes short sellers rethink their life choices. Revenue hit $1.39 billion, backlog grew 38% — beating estimates by $70 million — and management raised full-year guidance by more than the beat itself. Jefferies analyst Brent Thill called it a 'major AI winner,' and that whole 'Databricks is destroying Snowflake' narrative? Apparently fiction. The $6 billion AWS commitment is a bold long-term bet that enterprises need serious data infrastructure to even run AI — and Snowflake is selling the picks and shovels.
Meanwhile, $CRM had its own earnings moment — and it was fine. Like, genuinely fine. $11.13B in Q1 revenue, 14% YoY growth, AgentForce crossing $1B ARR, and a monster $27B buyback juicing EPS by 52%. But remaining performance obligations missed at $67.9B vs. $68.9B expected, and full-year guidance came in light. Shares dipped ~1.4% after hours. Benioff's AI story is real — the Street just wanted more dessert.
Two cloud giants, two very different vibes: Snowflake walked in like it had something to prove, Salesforce walked in like it already knew it was getting a participation ribbon.