Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) CEO Marc Benioff is calling out a report that claimed the company was negotiating a $1 billion-plus cloud deal with major tech firms to support its AI workload.
According to The Information, Salesforce was in talks with Microsoft (MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) for a big cloud agreement. The report cited an interview with Salesforce President and Chief Engineering Officer Srini Tallapragada, suggesting the deal was in the works. Benioff wasn’t having it.
He took to X to shut it down, writing, The story in @TheInformation is incorrect. He clarified that while Salesforce explored a fourth cloud option in 2024alongside its current choices Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) AWS, Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), and its own data centersit ultimately chose to expand its partnership with Google instead.
Future Salesforce releases will let customers deploy Customer 360 apps, Hyperforce, Agentforce, and Data Cloud on Google’s platform. While Salesforce is making big AI moves, Benioff’s response makes it clear: there’s no massive new cloud dealjust a deeper commitment to existing partners.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.