On Tuesday, January 27, the cloud-based software company Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) received a substantial boost as it signed an indefinite contract with the U.S. Army, valued at approximatelly $5.6 billion.
CRM stock was quick to react to the news as it rallied 2.11% in the extended session from its latest closing price of $229.40 to its press time price of $234.23.
The deal between Salesforce and the Department of War (DOW) could rapidly shift the company’s stock market situation as the latest moves started a reversal of the equity’s previous 2026 moves.
Specifically, CRM shares are down 9.55% in the year-to-date (YTD) chart and 33.91% in the last 12 months.
The $5.6 billion Salesforce Army contract explained
Elsewhere, the $5.6 billion contract is designed to accelerate the Department of War’s integration of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) into its systems and grant access to Salesforce’s so-called Missionforce portfolio of products.
The Missionforce initiative was unveiled in September 2025 and described as focusing on ‘transforming defense, intelligence and aerospace agencies by leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance vital operations, including logistics, personnel support and decision-making.’
‘This new contract, which builds on more than a decade-long relationship between Salesforce and the U.S. Armed Forces, will operationalize Missionforce across the Army and DOW, delivering trusted data and seamless interoperability, and supporting the DOW’s transformation into an agentic enterprise,’ Kendall Collins, CEO of Missionforce and Government Cloud at Salesforce, remarked.
Some of the highlights of the deal between Salesforce and the DOW include the claims that the contract will help ensure prices are predictable and the process of procurement is shortened from months to days, provide real-time analytics, enhance situational awareness, and support the ‘hire-to-retire’ workflows, among other benefits.
U.S. DOW unveils ‘patent holiday’ for defense industry
The agreement also comes as the U.S. government is seeking to further advance the development of defense technology. The drive was also exemplified by a decision to implement a ‘patent holiday’ to the military-industrial complex.
Under the program, private companies will have access to no-fee commercial evaluation of about 400 patents owned by the government for a period of 2 years under the pilot program.
Featured image via Shutterstock
