Salesforce is trading at $163 per share — down nearly 42% over the past 52 weeks — and a growing number of institutional investors believe the selloff has gone too far. The stock has been caught in what fund managers are calling the “SaaSpocalypse”: a broad market panic that AI will make software companies like Salesforce obsolete. One major global investment fund is now calling this “a significant investment opportunity” and making the case that the market fundamentally misunderstands what Salesforce actually is.
Montaka Global Investments laid out its bull case for Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) in its Q2 2026 investor letter. The market’s bear case rests on two fears: first, that AI makes software trivially cheap to build, eliminating the need for platforms like Salesforce; and second, that AI agents can interact directly with data systems, making seat-based software licenses obsolete. Montaka argues both fears misidentify what Salesforce sells. With a market cap of $133.5 billion and 101 hedge fund portfolios holding shares as of Q1 2026 (down from 115 the prior quarter), Salesforce is not a commodity SaaS vendor. It is, Montaka argues, “the trusted layer through which AI can be deployed safely and usefully into the world’s enterprises.” That competitive moat — the data, the customer relationships, the compliance infrastructure — has nothing to do with how easy it is to write code. The SaaS criticism, in other words, is aimed at the wrong business model.
For investors willing to look past the narrative panic, Salesforce offers something rare right now: a dominant enterprise software franchise at a valuation that implies near-obsolescence. The stock’s one-month return is already +3.52%, suggesting some early buyers are stepping in. The broader “SaaSpocalypse” selloff may be testing a bottom as Q2 earnings from cloud and software companies clarify actual demand trends. Salesforce reports earnings in late August — that’s the next major catalyst to watch. Investors considering CRM should monitor whether Agentforce (Salesforce’s AI agent platform) shows material revenue contribution, and whether enterprise customer retention remains strong. If the bear case is wrong, the stock has meaningful upside from current levels. The contrarian case here deserves serious consideration.
