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Benzinga
Benzinga
Business
Chandrima Sanyal

AI Blues Is Weighing On Salesforce — Could Your SaaS ETFs Be Next?

Salesforce AI Partnership

The 30% plunge this year by Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) is reshaping sentiment across the SaaS ETF universe.

With the stock now trading at its cheapest valuation since its 2004 IPO, investors are rethinking whether a broader cloud-software reset is underway-or whether the market has simply overreacted to AI disruption fears.

The pressure began building as concerns grew that AI-native challengers could nibble away at Salesforce’s core products before its own tools, like Agentforce, produce meaningful profits, noted a Bloomberg report.

Wall Street hasn’t budged on forward estimates in a year, signalling deep skepticism despite management guiding for a return to double-digit revenue growth. At under 19 times forward earnings – versus a 10-year average of 47 – Salesforce is suddenly the bargain of Big Software, but one with strings attached.

Also Read: Marvell Could See AI Revenue Double By 2028 Thanks To New Tech Deal: Analysts

How SaaS ETFs Are Exposed

That said, two cloud-thematic ETFs carry meaningful Salesforce exposure: the Themes Cloud Computing ETF (NASDAQ:CLOD), at roughly 4.5%, and the Fidelity Cloud Computing ETF (BATS:FCLD) with over 4%. Neither of those weights is going to make or break either fund, but Salesforce nonetheless sits firmly within their top holdings-enough that CRM’s slump leaves a noticeable imprint on performance during a year when cloud software as a whole is under pressure.

CLOD has lost more than 5% over the past month, while FCLD has dropped more than 7% during the same period.

Already, Morgan Stanley’s SaaS basket is down 12% in 2025, reflecting how deeply those AI worries have penetrated the sector.

Are They A Buy?

A legitimate argument can be made that, for the long-horizon investor, it could be. Both ETFs offer diversified exposure to cloud infrastructure, SaaS platforms, and next-gen enterprise software, each of these areas still riding multi-year tailwinds from AI adoption, data growth, and enterprise automation.

Salesforce expects double-digit revenue growth in the coming years. Taking this into consideration, analysts say this might be a great buy-the-dip opportunity for investors, per Bloomberg.

With valuations across SaaS now at a 30-40% discount to fundamentals, per analysts, these funds could be at a cyclical entry point.

But near-term volatility is unavoidable. If the AI-native disruptors keep stealing mindshare before incumbents prove monetization, both CLOD and FCLD could stay choppy. Investors looking for a smoother ride may want to stick with broader technology ETFs like Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) where CRM has a smaller weighting. S

till, if Salesforce stabilizes-or simply proves it can defend its turf-these cloud ETFs stand to capture the recovery. Right now, they resemble early access tickets to a sector the market may have marked down a little too aggressively.

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Image: Shutterstock

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