Salesforce shares have declined more than 15% over the past two weeks, marking one of the steepest short-term pullbacks since early 2021. Trading volume has averaged 25% above the 30-day norm as investors react to heightened concerns about the tech sector’s broader valuation and renewed scrutiny of growth-at-all-cost strategies. The sell-off has erased roughly $30 billion in market capitalization, pushing the company’s forward price-to-earnings ratio down by nearly three multiple points compared to its year-end level. Analysts now forecast revenue growth of 12% next fiscal year, a downward revision of two percentage points from forecasts issued just one month ago.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, CEO Marc Benioff called on global policymakers to introduce regulations for artificial intelligence, citing multiple documented cases where AI models acted as ‘suicide coaches.’ Speaking with CNBC, he warned that without guardrails, the same trajectory of harm seen in unregulated social media could repeat. Benioff referenced his 2018 Davos remarks on treating social media like a health issue, advocating for frameworks comparable to those governing tobacco. He emphasized that unchecked AI deployment could expose Salesforce to reputational and legal risks, urging investors to consider the long-term benefits of proactive compliance over short-term revenue gains.