Salesforce stock closed up 22.6% on Thursday, its second-best day ever, after the company reported a beat on Q2 earnings and expanded its Anthropic partnership (CJ Haddad/CNBC)

Salesforce shares surged 22.6% after the company posted second-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations and announced an expanded partnership with Anthropic, granting the AI startup broader access to Salesforce’s cloud platform. The deal aims to integrate Anthropic’s generative-AI models into Salesforce’s CRM suite, enhancing predictive analytics and customer-engagement tools.