Why did the Motley Fool pick Salesforce over Oracle?

It said Salesforce isn't spending as much as Oracle on its AI transition, and that Oracle's capital-intensive data centers are a risky bet whose payoff is still unproven.

How did Oracle and Salesforce stocks perform over the past year?

Salesforce's stock is down about 3% over the past 12 months, while Oracle's stock has cratered 55%, compared to the S&P 500's 16% gains.

What concerns do analysts have about Salesforce's Agentforce?

Analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets said over the summer that Agentforce has failed to impress some chief information officers, quoting customers saying, "Agentforce, as a product, just isn't there."

AI Stocks & MarketsTop Companies' AI MovesAI Business & IndustryTop Companies AI16m agoSep 29, 2026, 06:30 JST

Motley Fool picks Salesforce over Oracle as better AI stock

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3 Key Points

What happened
The Motley Fool named Salesforce the better enterprise AI stock over Oracle, noting Salesforce's fiscal Q2 2027 sales rose 11% to $11.3 billion while Oracle's quarterly capex jumped 235% to $28.5 billion.
Why it matters
Salesforce's lighter spending on its AI transition is framed as the deciding edge, since Oracle's capital-intensive data centers are a risky bet whose payoff is still unproven.
What to watch
The verdict hinges on whether Oracle's heavy AI infrastructure spending ultimately proves worth the cost, and on how Salesforce's Agentforce platform is received by enterprise chief information officers.

WHO IT HITSInvestors weighing enterprise AI stocks, and the chief information officers at large companies who decide whether to keep legacy software with AI added or switch to AI-first tools, are the audiences these findings speak to.

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Context & Analysis

The Motley Fool's comparison lands after a rough year for both companies. Salesforce's stock is down about 3% over the past 12 months and Oracle's has cratered 55%, while the S&P 500 gained 16%. Both companies have made big moves into AI, and some of those moves are already showing results.

Oracle has built its AI story around cloud infrastructure, renting out computing power to tech companies, with contracts from OpenAI, Meta and Nvidia. Its cloud infrastructure sales soared 121% year over year to $7.4 billion in fiscal Q1 2027, and total sales rose 30% to $19.3 billion. But capex soared 235% to $28.5 billion in that quarter, and the gap between spending and sales growth is what worries shareholders.

Salesforce, by contrast, has folded AI into its customer relationship management software through deals with Alphabet's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude, and has shifted from a paid-seat model to usage-based pricing. Its fiscal Q2 2027 sales rose 11% to $11.3 billion and non-GAAP earnings more than doubled to $5.90. The Motley Fool's conclusion is that Salesforce's lighter spending makes it the better bet right now, though the verdict on Oracle's data-center costs is treated as still open.

FAQ

Why did the Motley Fool pick Salesforce over Oracle?: It said Salesforce isn't spending as much as Oracle on its AI transition, and that Oracle's capital-intensive data centers are a risky bet whose payoff is still unproven.
How did Oracle and Salesforce stocks perform over the past year?: Salesforce's stock is down about 3% over the past 12 months, while Oracle's stock has cratered 55%, compared to the S&P 500's 16% gains.
What concerns do analysts have about Salesforce's Agentforce?: Analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets said over the summer that Agentforce has failed to impress some chief information officers, quoting customers saying, "Agentforce, as a product, just isn't there."

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