Salesforce Inc. has signed a multibillion-dollar cloud deal with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, part of a larger effort to combine forces and attract corporate customers currently using Microsoft Corp.’s productivity and artificial intelligence products.
Salesforce, which mostly relies on Amazon cloud services, has committed to spending at least $2.5 billion over seven years on cloud-computing services from Google. The agreement will now let Salesforce customers choose to run their customer-management software, Agentforce autonomous AI assistants and Data Cloud products on Google Cloud.
The deal is emblematic of how big tech companies are forging alliances and partnerships to offer customers a broader menu of AI-enhanced products and services. Microsoft, which has a first mover advantage in generative artificial intelligence for corporations, says most Fortune 500 companies already use its AI productivity tools. But adoption has sometimes lagged expectations, leaving an opening for Google, which will now be bolstered by Salesforce’s market leading customer-management software.
The two companies already have many clients in common, and they were pushing for greater product integration, Google Cloud Chief Executive Officer Thomas Kurian said in an interview. The alliance will let a corporate customer use Google’s Workspace to write a document for a sales prospect, pull details from Salesforce’s customer data and fine-tune the proposal using information from Google’s Gemini AI model, Kurian said.
Salesforce “could host their stuff anywhere,” Kurian said. “But I think they see the quality of our technology, the growth we have in our customer base.”
Salesforce talked to other cloud vendors including Microsoft and Oracle as well as Google, the Information reported Thursday.
Salesforce, the top seller of customer relations management software, pivoted its AI strategy last year to focus on AI agents — tools that can complete tasks such as customer support or sales development without human supervision. Generative AI tools are significantly more demanding than traditional applications, often requiring additional cloud computing capacity.
Google said customers like Wayfair and Accenture will begin moving their Salesforce applications to Google Cloud. As part of the deal, Salesforce will also let Agentforce customers use Google’s Gemini models.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has taken repeated jabs at Microsoft’s AI efforts, including its Copilot AI assistants, which he deems inferior to his company’s AI agents. “When you look at how Copilot has been delivered to customers, it’s disappointing,” Benioff posted in October on X. Microsoft’s public relations chief Frank Shaw fired back, describing Benioff’s strategy as “all about marketing, less about truth or substance.”
Salesforce will report earnings on Wednesday, with investors closely watching for any sign of sales uplift from the new AI tools. Benioff said in January that his company will sign “thousands” of Agentforce deals in the current fiscal quarter.
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