ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
In evaluating our business, you should carefully consider the following discussion of material risks, events and uncertainties that make an investment in us speculative or risky in addition to the other information included in this Annual Report. A manifestation of any of the following risks and uncertainties could, in circumstances we may or may not be able to accurately predict, materially and adversely affect our business and operations, growth, reputation, prospects, operating and financial results, financial condition, cash flows, liquidity and stock price. Some of the factors, events and contingencies discussed below may have occurred in the past, but the disclosures below are not representations as to whether or not the factors, events or contingencies have occurred in the past and instead reflect our beliefs and opinions as to the factors, events or contingencies that could materially and adversely affect us in the future. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Other events, factors or uncertainties that we do not currently anticipate or that we currently deem immaterial also may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, other key metrics and the trading price of our common stock. Therefore, you should not consider the following risks to be a complete statement of all the potential risks or uncertainties that we face.
Risk Factor Summary
Operational and Execution Risks
• Any breaches in our security measures or those of our third-party data center providers, cloud computing platform providers, customers, partners, or other third-party vendors, or the underlying Internet infrastructure that cause unauthorized access to, disclosure, alteration, corruption, destruction or loss of customer data, our data or our IT systems, or disruption of authorized access thereto.
• Any defects or disruptions in our services that diminish demand for our services.
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• Any interruptions or delays in services from third parties, including data center hosting facilities, cloud computing platform providers and other hardware and software vendors, as well as Internet infrastructure, or from our inability to adequately plan for and manage service interruptions or infrastructure capacity requirements.
• An inability to realize the expected business or financial benefits of company and technology acquisitions.
• Strain on our personnel resources and infrastructure from supporting our existing and growing customer base or an inability to scale our operations and increase productivity.
• Customer attrition, or our inability to accurately predict subscription renewals and upgrade rates.
• Disruptions caused by periodic changes to our sales organization.
• Exposure to risks inherent in international operations from sales to customers outside the United States.
• A more time-consuming and expensive sales cycle, pricing pressure and implementation and configuration challenges for sales efforts to larger enterprise customers.
• Any loss of key members of our management team or development and operations personnel, or inability to attract and retain employees necessary to support our operations and growth.
• Any failure in the delivery of high-quality professional and technical support services related to our online applications.
Strategic and Industry Risks
• An inability to compete effectively in the intensely competitive markets in which we participate.
• Any failure to expand our services and to develop and integrate our existing services in order to keep pace with technological developments.
• An inability to maintain and enhance our brands.
• Partial or complete loss of invested capital, or significant changes in the fair value, of our strategic investment portfolio.
• Any discontinuance by third-party developers and vendors in embracing our technology delivery model and enterprise cloud computing services, or customers asking us for warranties for third-party applications, integrations, data and content.
• Social, ethical, and regulatory issues, including the development, deployment, use or capabilities of AI in our offerings.
• The evolving landscape related to environmental, social and governance matters.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
• Privacy concerns and laws as well as evolving regulation of cloud computing, AI services, increased restriction of cross-border data transfers and other regulatory developments.
• Evolving industry-specific regulations, requirements, interpretive positions or standards.
• Lawsuits against us by third parties for various claims, including alleged infringement of proprietary rights.
• Any failure to obtain registration or protection of our intellectual property rights.
• Risks related to government contracts and related procurement regulations.
• Governmental sanctions and export and import controls that could impair our ability to compete in international markets and may subject us to liability.
Financial Risks
• Downturns or upturns in new business, which may not be immediately reflected in our operating results because we generally recognize revenue from subscriptions for our services over the term of the subscription.
• Significant fluctuations in our rate of anticipated growth and any failure to balance our expenses with our revenue forecasts.
• Unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate and additional tax liabilities and global tax developments.
• Fluctuations in currency exchange rates, particularly the U.S. Dollar versus local currencies.
• Our debt service obligations, lease commitments and other contractual obligations.
Risks Related to Owning Our Common Stock
• Fluctuations in our quarterly results.
• Volatility in our stock price and associated litigation.
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• Provisions in our governing documents and Delaware law that might discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of the Company or changes in our management.
General Risks
• Volatile and significantly weakened global economic conditions.
• The occurrence of natural disasters and other catastrophic events beyond our control.
• The long-term impact of climate change on our business.
Operational and Execution Risks
If our security measures, or those of our third-party data center providers, cloud computing platform providers, customers, partners, other third-party vendors or the underlying Internet infrastructure, are breached or otherwise compromised, resulting in the unauthorized access to, disclosure, alteration, corruption, destruction or loss of customer data, our data or our IT systems, or disruption of authorized access thereto, our services may be perceived as insecure, customers may reduce or terminate their use of our services, and we may incur significant reputational harm, legal liability, regulatory scrutiny or a negative financial impact.
Our services involve the storage and transmission of our customers’ and our customers’ customers’ proprietary and other sensitive data, including financial, health and other personal information. Our services and underlying infrastructure have in the past and may in the future be breached or compromised, including, for example, as a result of the following:
• attempts to fraudulently induce our employees, customers, partners, or third-party vendors to disclose sensitive information to gain unauthorized access to our or our customers’ data or IT systems;
• efforts by threat actors, including criminal organizations, state-sponsored actors and nation-states, to launch coordinated cyberattacks or supply chain attacks on our infrastructure or that of our third-party vendors, including through ransomware, destructive malware, distributed denial-of-service attacks or exploitation of previously unknown “zero-day” vulnerabilities;
• attempts to misuse our marketing, advertising, messaging or social products and functionalities to impersonate persons or organizations and disseminate information that is false, misleading or malicious;
• vulnerabilities arising from new technologies and infrastructures, including those from acquisitions, enhancements and updates to our existing products, and the adoption and deployment of AI technologies within our products, services, internal systems, which may introduce novel security, data governance, or operational risks;
• vulnerabilities in products or components within the broad ecosystem in which our services operate and upon which they depend;
• attacks on, or vulnerabilities in, the underlying networks and services that power the Internet on which our products depend, most of which are not under our control or the control of our third-party vendors, partners or customers; and
• employee or contractor errors, omissions or intentional acts that compromise our security systems.
Although we devote significant resources to protecting our data and IT systems, we can provide no assurances that our security measures, including systems and processes designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our customers’ and our customers’ customers’ proprietary and sensitive data, will be effective or that a material cybersecurity incident will not occur. Our ability to mitigate these risks may be impacted by the following:
• evolving and increasingly sophisticated techniques used to breach or disrupt IT systems and infrastructure, including the use or exploitation of AI technologies by threat actors to accelerate, scale or personalize cyberattacks, which may increase speed and effectiveness and limit our ability to anticipate, detect or mitigate such threats;
• the increasing complexity of our internal IT systems as we integrate acquired businesses and adopt new technologies and data-sharing models; and
• our limited control over our customers, partners, and third-party vendors (including those authorized by customers to access their data), or over the processing of data by such third parties, which may limit our ability to maintain the integrity or security of such transmissions or processing.
In the normal course of business, we and our customers are and have been the target of malicious cyberattacks and other security threats. Although to date we have not identified any security incidents involving our systems that have had a material financial impact on us, there can be no assurance that future incidents will not be material or significant. As our market presence grows, we may face increased risks of cyberattacks and other security threats. Additionally, as AI technologies, including generative and agentic AI, continue to evolve, threat actors are using and exploiting these technologies to enhance the sophistication, scale, speed and effectiveness of security threats that may be more difficult to detect and defend against. Any in detecting, containing, or remediating a cybersecurity may result in additional , and in certain cases the full scope and impact of any such may not be immediately apparent.
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A cybersecurity incident could result in unauthorized access to, or the loss or denial of authorized access to, our IT systems or data, or those of our customers, including intellectual property and other proprietary, sensitive or confidential information. We are subject to contractual, regulatory and other legal obligations to notify relevant stakeholders of certain security incidents. For example, SEC rules require disclosure on Form 8-K of the nature, scope and timing of any material cybersecurity incident and the reasonably likely impact of such incident. Assessing whether an incident is material or reportable may require complex judgment and investigation, and disclosure of an incident may itself adversely affect our reputation, customer relationships and exposure to legal or regulatory proceedings. A security incident or related disclosure could result in of confidence in the security of our services, our reputation, impact future sales, our business operations, increase insurance premiums and result in legal, regulatory and financial liability. Additionally, it may take considerable time for us to and evaluate the full impact of cybersecurity attacks, particularly for sophisticated attacks, which may inhibit our ability to provide prompt, full and reliable information about the to our customers, regulators and the public. Further, there can be no assurance that our insurance coverage will be sufficient in type or amount to cover the arising from a cybersecurity . In addition, , detection, and remediation of actual or or , including determining whether notification or disclosure is required, may not be straightforward, may result in significant direct and indirect costs, including increased infrastructure and security spending and the of resources from development activities.
Defects or disruptions in our services could diminish demand for our services and subject us to substantial liability.
We have in the past and may in the future identify defects in or experience disruptions to our services. Such issues may arise in a variety of circumstances, including from customers using our services in unanticipated ways that disrupt access for other customers; from employee, contractor or other third-party action or inaction; or from the complexity of our services, which incorporate a variety of hardware, proprietary software and third-party and open-source software. Across the industry, cloud services frequently contain undetected errors when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released.
We have experienced and may in the future experience defects in our, our customers’, or third-party vendors’ products and components, which may create vulnerabilities that inadvertently permit unauthorized access to protected customer data. We can provide no assurance that such defects or vulnerabilities will not occur in the future, have a material adverse effect on our business or subject us to substantial liability. Vulnerabilities in open-source, proprietary or third-party products and components can persist even after security patches have been issued if updates are not timely implemented or if threat actors exploit vulnerabilities before remediation is complete. In some cases, vulnerabilities may not be immediately detected, which may make it difficult to recover services and lead to assets.
Since our customers rely on our products and services for important aspects of their operations, errors, defects, service disruptions or other performance issues have in the past adversely impacted our customers and could do so in the future. As a result, customers could elect to not renew their services, delay or withhold payment or make warranty or other claims against us. Such outcomes could reduce future sales, increase in our allowance for doubtful accounts, increase collection cycles and expose us to litigation and related expenses.
Any interruptions or delays in services from third parties, including data center hosting facilities, cloud computing platform providers and other hardware and software vendors, as well as Internet infrastructure, or from our inability to adequately plan for and manage service interruptions or infrastructure capacity requirements, could impair the delivery of our services and harm our business.
We rely on third-party data center hosting facilities and cloud computing platform providers located in the United States and other countries, as well as the many different underlying networks and services that power the Internet, to deliver our products and services and operate critical business systems. We also rely on hardware purchased or leased from, software licensed from, and cloud computing platforms provided by third parties in order to offer our products and services, including database software, hardware and data from multiple vendors. Any disruption, degradation or failure of our systems, or those of the third parties on which we rely, could result in service interruptions and harm our business. We have experienced service interruptions and interruptions may occur in the future. As our reliance on these third-party systems increases, and particularly on third-party cloud computing platforms, our exposure to service interruptions and performance or quality issues may also increase. Service interruptions or other performance or quality issues may cause us to issue credits or pay , cause customers to assert warranty or other or their subscriptions, and affect rates and our ability to attract new customers, which could reduce revenue. Our business and reputation would also be if our customers and potential customers perceive our services as .
For many of our offerings, our production environment and customer data are replicated at geographically separate facilities. Certain offerings, including those added through acquisitions, may be delivered through alternate facilities or arrangements. We do not control the operation of any of these facilities, and they may be vulnerable to damage or interruption from events outside of our control, such as natural disasters or supply chain disruptions. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, such as disaster recovery and business continuity arrangements, unanticipated events, problems, operational failures
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or other disruptions could result in prolonged service interruptions, and there can be no assurance that such interruptions would be remediated without significant cost, in a timely manner or at all.
The hardware, software, data and cloud computing platforms that we rely on, including, for example, the large language models leveraged in our AI offerings, may not continue to be available at reasonable prices, on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any loss of the right to use such hardware, software, data or cloud computing platforms could significantly increase our expenses and disrupt or delay the provision of our services until equivalent technology is either developed internally or obtained from third parties and integrated into our systems. There can be no assurance that such replacement technology would be available or implemented in a timely manner or at all.
As we scale our operations, the volume and nature of data processed by our offerings continue to evolve, including as a result of the deployment of AI technologies, and our infrastructure capacity requirements, including network capacity, computing power and energy requirements, may increase as a result. Additionally, increased energy consumption, including as a result of AI adoption, climate-related events, energy market volatility, and power grid disruptions may increase the operational costs related to inputs across our value chain, including for data centers. If we experience significant strains on our data center capacity, whether due to insufficient infrastructure capacity or for other reasons outside of our control, our customers could experience performance degradation or service outages that may subject us to financial liabilities, result in customer losses, subject us to litigation and harm our reputation and business. As we add data centers and capacity and continue to move to cloud computing platform providers, we move or transfer our data and our customers’ data from time to time. precautions taken during this process, any data transfers may the delivery of our services, which may our business.
As we acquire companies or technologies, we may not realize the expected business or financial benefits and the acquisitions could prove difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our operating results and the market value of our common stock.
As part of our business strategy, we periodically acquire complementary businesses, joint ventures, services and technologies and intellectual property rights. We continue to evaluate such opportunities and expect to make such acquisitions and other transactions and arrangements in the future, which may involve numerous risks and could create unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures, including:
• potential failure to achieve the expected benefits on a timely basis or at all;
• potential identified or unknown security vulnerabilities in acquired products or technologies that expose us to additional cybersecurity risks, delay integration into our service offerings, or create challenges in increasing or maintaining the security standards of the acquired technologies;
• difficulty of transitioning the acquired technology onto our existing platforms;
• brand or reputational harm associated with our acquired companies;
• challenges converting the acquired company’s revenue recognition policies and forecasting the related revenues, including both consumption- and subscription-based revenues and term software license revenue;
• in the case of foreign acquisitions, challenges with integrating operations across different cultures and languages and addressing the particular economic, currency, political, cybersecurity, regulatory and market risks associated with certain countries;
• operational and financial difficulties and strains on resources in integrating acquired operations, technologies, services, platforms and personnel (including cultural integration and retention of employees);
• regulatory challenges from antitrust or other regulatory authorities that may block, delay or impose conditions on the completion of transactions or the integration of acquired operations;
• challenges with maintaining the acquired company’s customers, partners and third-party service providers;
• known and potential unknown liabilities associated with the acquired businesses, including due to litigation;
• difficulties in managing, or potential write-offs of, acquired assets, and potential financial and credit risks associated with acquired customers;
• negative impact to our results of operations because of the depreciation and amortization of acquired intangible assets, fixed assets and operating lease right-of-use assets;
• additional stock-based compensation issued or assumed in connection with the acquisition, including the impact on stockholder dilution and our results of operations;
• ineffective or inadequate controls, procedures and policies at the acquired company; and
• the tax effects related to integration and business operation changes, realizability of our deferred tax assets, and uncertain tax liabilities.
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Any of these risks could harm our business or negatively impact our results of operations. In addition, to facilitate acquisitions, we may seek additional equity or debt financing, which may not be available on terms favorable to us or at all, which may affect our ability to complete subsequent acquisitions, and which may affect the risks of owning our common stock. If we finance acquisitions by issuing equity or convertible or other debt securities or taking out loans, our existing stockholders may be diluted, or we could face constraints related to the terms of, and repayment obligation related to, the incurrence of indebtedness that could affect our stock price. For example, in connection with our acquisition of Informatica, we entered into the Informatica Credit Agreements on an unsecured basis. In November 2025, the Company borrowed the full $6.0 billion available under the Informatica Credit Agreements to finance a portion of the cash consideration for the acquisition, repay existing indebtedness of Informatica and its subsidiaries, and pay related fees, costs, and expenses. For more information, see Note 9 “Debt” to the consolidated financial statements in Item 8 of Part 2.
Our ability to acquire other businesses or technologies, or integrate acquired businesses effectively, may be impaired by trade tensions and increased global scrutiny of foreign investments and acquisitions in the technology sector. Governments may continue to adopt or tighten restrictions of this nature, some of which may apply to acquisitions or integrations of businesses by us, and such restrictions or government actions could negatively impact our business and financial results.
Supporting our existing and growing customer base could strain our personnel resources and infrastructure, and if we are unable to scale our operations and increase productivity, we may not be able to successfully implement our business plan.
We continue to experience significant growth in our customer base, including through acquisitions, which has placed a strain on our management, administrative, operational and financial infrastructure. We anticipate that significant additional investments, including in human capital software, agentic AI and other technologies, will be required to scale our operations and increase productivity, address the needs of our customers, develop and enhance our services, expand into new geographic areas and support continued growth. These investments will increase our cost base, making it more difficult to offset any future revenue shortfalls by reducing expenses in the short term. We may not be able to make these investments as quickly or effectively as necessary to successfully scale our operations.
We regularly upgrade or replace our software systems and processes. If the implementations of these new applications are delayed, or if we encounter problems with our new systems and processes or in migrating away from our existing systems and processes, our operations could be negatively impacted. For example, in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, we implemented a new enterprise resource planning system (“ERP”). Among other things, our ERP is essential to our financial planning, reporting, and compliance programs, and any unforeseen problems with our new ERP or in migrating away from previous systems and processes could harm our ability to manage our business.
Our success will depend in part upon the ability of our senior management to plan and manage our projected growth effectively. We must continue to increase the productivity of our existing employees and to hire, train and manage employees as needed. Additionally, changes in our work environment and workforce may not meet the needs and expectations of our workforce or may create operational and workplace culture challenges, which could negatively impact our ability to increase employee productivity or attract and retain our employees and could adversely affect our operations. Furthermore, new AI offerings and technologies, which are integrated into our operations, may disrupt workforce needs and could adversely affect our operations if not managed properly. To manage the expected growth of our operations and personnel, we will need to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, our reporting systems and procedures and our utilization of real estate. If we fail to successfully scale our operations and increase productivity, we may be to execute our business plan and the value of our common stock could .
If our customers do not renew their subscriptions or if they reduce subscriptions at renewal, our revenue and current remaining performance obligation could decline and our business may suffer. If customer usage of consumption-based offerings is below expected levels, our revenue could decline. If we cannot accurately predict subscription renewals or upgrade rates or optimal pricing for consumption-based contracts, we may not meet our revenue targets, which may adversely affect our stock price.
Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions after the expiration of their contractual subscription period, which is typically 12 to 36 months, and in the normal course of business, some customers have elected not to renew. Our customers may renew for fewer subscriptions, renew for shorter contract lengths or switch to lower cost offerings of our services. It is difficult to predict attrition rates given our varied customer base and the number of multi-year subscription contracts. Our attrition rates may increase or fluctuate as a result of various factors, including customer dissatisfaction, customers’ spending levels, mix of customer base, decreases in the number of users at our customers, competition, pricing increases or changes, such as the increased prevalence of consumption-based pricing models and economic downturns.
Our future success depends in part on our ability to sell additional features and services, more subscriptions or enhanced editions of our services to our current customers. This may also require increasingly sophisticated and costly sales efforts that are targeted at senior management. Similarly, the rate at which our customers purchase new or enhanced services depends on a
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number of factors, including general economic conditions and customer receptiveness to price changes related to these additional features and services. In addition, the markets and monetization strategies for certain offerings, including Agentforce and Data 360, remain relatively new and uncertain and may present additional risks and challenges.
Periodic changes to our sales organization can be disruptive and may reduce our rate of growth.
We periodically change and make adjustments to our sales organization in response to market opportunities, competitive threats, management changes, product introductions or enhancements, acquisitions, sales performance, increases in sales headcount, cost levels and other internal and external considerations. Such changes have in some periods resulted in, and may in the future result in, a reduction of productivity, which could negatively impact our operating results. Further, any significant change to our sales organization’s compensation structure may be disruptive and negatively affect our operating results.
Sales to customers outside the United States expose us to risks inherent in international operations.
We sell our services throughout the world and are subject to risks and challenges associated with international business. The risks and challenges associated with sales to customers outside the United States or those that can affect international operations generally, include:
• regional economic and political conditions, natural disasters, acts of war, terrorism and actual or threatened public health emergencies, or other geopolitical events, including the evolving relations between the United States and China, the United States and Russia, and ongoing conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine and the regional conflict in the Middle East;
• localization of our services, including translation into foreign languages and associated expenses;
• regulatory frameworks or business practices favoring local competitors;
• pressure on the creditworthiness of sovereign nations, where we have customers and a balance of our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities;
• foreign currency fluctuations and controls, which may make our services more expensive for international customers and could add volatility to or negatively impact our operating results;
• compliance with complex and evolving governmental laws and regulations, such as those governing AI;
• liquidity issues or political actions by sovereign nations, including nations with a controlled currency environment, could result in decreased values of these balances or potential difficulties protecting our foreign assets or satisfying local obligations;
• vetting and monitoring our third-party resellers in new and evolving markets to confirm they maintain standards consistent with our brand and reputation;
• treatment of revenue from international sources, evolving domestic and international tax environments and changes to tax codes, including being subject to and paying withholding taxes under foreign tax laws;
• uncertainty regarding changes in trade policies, including trade wars, the threat or imposition of tariffs or other trade restrictions, as well as any retaliatory actions;
• perceptions of U.S.-based companies in the regions where we operate or plan to operate;
• perceptions of regions or governments in the regions where we operate or plan to operate, resulting in negative publicity or reputational harm;
• different pricing environments;
• difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations;
• different or lesser protection of our intellectual property, including increased risk of theft of our proprietary technology and other intellectual property, and more prevalent cybersecurity risks, particularly in jurisdictions in which we have historically chosen not to operate; and
• longer accounts receivable payment cycles and other collection difficulties.
Any of these factors could negatively impact our business and results of operations. The above factors may also negatively impact our ability to successfully expand into emerging market countries, where we have little or no operating experience, where it can be costly and challenging to establish and maintain operations, including hiring and managing required personnel, and difficult to promote our brand, and where we may not benefit from any first-to-market advantage or otherwise succeed.
Sales to larger enterprise customers may involve more time-consuming and expensive sales cycles, pricing pressure and implementation and configuration challenges, and, for some complex transactions, delayed revenue recognition, all of which could harm our business and operating results.
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We may face greater costs, longer sales cycles, greater competition and less predictability in completing some of our sales to large enterprise customers, including governmental entities and customers in regulated industries. In these market segments, the customer’s decision to use our services is often an enterprise-wide decision and may require us to provide greater levels of education regarding the use and benefits of our services, as well as address other concerns, such as heightened privacy and data protection requirements.
In addition, larger enterprise customers and governmental entities often demand more configuration, integration services and features. These sales opportunities often require us to devote greater sales support and professional services resources to individual customers, driving up costs and time required to complete sales and diverting our own sales and professional services resources to a smaller number of larger transactions, while potentially requiring us to delay revenue recognition on some of these transactions until the technical or implementation requirements have been met.
Pricing and packaging strategies for enterprise and other customers for our existing and future service offerings, including for our AI offerings such as Agentforce, may not be widely accepted by new or existing customers. Our adoption of or failure to adopt, as well as the manner and time of, changes to our pricing and packaging models and strategies may harm our business.
We may lose key members of our management team or development and operations personnel, and may be unable to attract and retain employees we need to support our operations and growth.
Our success depends substantially upon the continued services of our executive officers and other key members of management, particularly our chief executive officer. We are also substantially dependent on existing development and operations personnel because of the complexity of our services and technologies. Our executive officers, key management, and development and operations personnel could terminate their employment with us at any time. Effective succession planning is important to our long-term success, and changes in our management team or the loss of one or more of our key employees or groups of employees could seriously harm our business.
The technology industry is subject to substantial and continuous competition for engineers with high levels of experience in designing, developing and managing software and technology services, as well as competition for sales executives, data scientists and development and operations personnel. We have experienced challenges with significant competition in talent recruitment and retention, particularly for engineers with experience in AI, and may not be successful in recruiting or retaining such talent. We have experienced and expect to continue to experience difficulty in hiring, developing, integrating and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. These difficulties may be amplified by evolving restrictions on immigration, travel, or availability of visas for skilled technology workers. Additionally, our compensation arrangements and benefits may not always be successful in attracting new employees or retaining and motivating our existing personnel. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain current personnel, our business and future growth prospects could be severely harmed.
We have undertaken various restructuring initiatives intended to improve operating margins and continue advancing our ongoing commitment to profitable growth, which have included a workforce reduction, select data center exits, and office space reductions within certain markets. These restructuring actions, or any similar actions taken in the future, could negatively impact our ability to attract, integrate, retain and motivate key employees.
In addition, we believe in the importance of our corporate culture, which fosters dialogue, collaboration, recognition, equality and a sense of family. As our organization has grown and expanded globally, and as our workplace plans have developed, including workforce and office space reductions related to our restructuring actions, we have experienced and may continue to experience difficulties maintaining our corporate culture globally, including managing the complexities of communicating with all employees. Any inability to maintain our corporate culture could negatively impact our ability to attract and retain employees, harm our reputation with customers or negatively impact our future growth.
Any failure in the delivery of high-quality professional and technical support services related to our online applications may adversely affect our relationships with our customers and our financial results.
Our customers sometimes require highly skilled and trained service professionals to successfully implement our applications and depend on our support organization to resolve technical issues relating to our applications. Implementation services may be performed by us, our customers, a third party, or a combination thereof. Our strategy is to work with third parties to increase the breadth of capability and depth of capacity for delivery of these services to our customers. If customers are not satisfied with the quality and timing of work or with the type of services or solutions delivered, we could incur additional costs to address the situation, the profitability of that work might be impaired, our revenue recognition could be impacted and the customer’s dissatisfaction with the services received could negatively impact our ability to sell our other offerings to that customer or retain existing customers. In addition, negative publicity related to our customer relationships, regardless of its accuracy, may further damage our business by affecting our ability to compete for new business with current or prospective customers. We may be to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for support services across our varying and diverse offerings. In addition, our sales process is highly dependent on our applications and business reputation and on recommendations from our existing customers. Any or perceived
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failure to maintain high-quality professional and technical support services could adversely affect our reputation, our ability to sell our service offerings to existing and prospective customers, and our business, operating results and financial position.
Strategic and Industry Risks
The markets in which we participate are intensely competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our operating results could be harmed.
The market for enterprise applications and platform services is highly competitive, rapidly evolving, fragmented and subject to changing technology, low barriers to entry, shifting customer needs and frequent introductions of new products and services. Many prospective customers have invested substantial personnel and financial resources to implement and integrate their current enterprise software into their businesses and therefore may be reluctant or unwilling to migrate away from their current solution to a different enterprise software service. Additionally, third-party developers may be reluctant to build application services on our platform since they have invested in other competing technology platforms.
Our current competitors include:
• vendors of packaged business software, as well as companies offering enterprise applications delivered through on-premises offerings from enterprise software application vendors and cloud computing application service providers, either individually or with others;
• AI-native companies and emerging startups that leverage generative AI and large language models as the core foundation of their architecture, offering highly specialized, autonomous, or automated solutions that may bypass traditional business process workflows or displace established user interfaces;
• software companies that provide their product or service free of charge as a single product or when bundled with other offerings, or only charge a premium for advanced features and functionality, as well as companies that offer solutions that are sold without a direct sales organization;
• vendors who offer software tailored to specific services, industries or market segments, as opposed to our full suite of service offerings, including suppliers of traditional business intelligence and data preparation products, integration software vendors, marketing vendors, e-commerce solutions vendors or AI software and service vendors;
• productivity tool and email providers, unified communications providers and consumer application companies that have entered the business software market; and
• traditional platform development environment companies and cloud computing development platform companies who may develop toolsets and products that allow customers to build new applications, including AI-augmented applications, that run on the customers’ current infrastructure or as hosted services, as well as would-be customers who may develop enterprise applications for internal use.
In addition, we may face more competition as we expand our service offerings. Some of our current and potential competitors may have competitive advantages, such as greater name recognition, longer operating histories, more significant installed bases, broader geographic scope, broader suites of service offerings and larger marketing budgets, as well as substantially greater financial, technical, personnel and other resources. In addition, many of our current and potential competitors have established marketing relationships and access to larger customer bases, and have major distribution agreements with consultants, system integrators and resellers. We also experience competition from smaller competitors that may be more agile in responding to customers’ demands and offer more targeted and simplified solutions. Our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements, or provide competitive pricing, more flexible contracts or faster implementations. Additionally, as we continue to increasingly build AI into many of our offerings, we face more competition as AI technologies are increasingly integrated into the markets in which we compete. New AI offerings may disrupt our service offerings or transform workforce needs and impact demand for our offerings, or our competitors may be to incorporate AI into their offerings more or than we are to and and faster adoption. Even if our products and services are more than the products and services that our competitors offer, potential customers might select competitive products and services in lieu of purchasing our products and services. For all of these reasons, we may not be to compete our competitors, which could impact our future sales and our business.
Our efforts to expand our service offerings and to develop and integrate our existing services in order to keep pace with technological developments may not succeed and may reduce our revenue growth rate and harm our business.
Our efforts to expand our current service offerings may not succeed and may reduce our revenue growth rate. In addition, the markets and monetization strategies for certain offerings, including Agentforce and Data 360, remain relatively new and uncertain and our expansion into such offerings, and related investments, may present additional risks and challenges. For example, we offer certain products, including Agentforce and Data 360, through a consumption-based business model and may increase the number of products through which we do so. We have limited experience with determining optimal pricing for our consumption-based contracts and may have lower levels of customer consumption of our products than we expect which may
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result in suboptimal pricing. Further, the introduction of future platform changes and upgrades may not result in long term revenue growth.
If we are unable to develop enhancements to, and new features for, our existing or new services that keep pace with rapid technological developments, our business could be harmed. The success of enhancements, new features and services depends on several factors, including its timely completion and introduction and market acceptance, as well as our ability to integrate all our product and service offerings and develop adequate selling capabilities in new markets. Failure in this regard may significantly impair our revenue growth as well as negatively impact our operating results if the additional costs are not offset by additional revenues. In addition, because our services are designed to operate over various network technologies and on a variety of mobile devices, operating systems and computer hardware and software platforms, we need to continuously modify and enhance our services to keep pace with changes in these technologies, as well as continue to maintain and support our services on legacy systems. We may not be successful in developing these modifications and or in bringing them to market timely.
Additionally, if we fail to timely anticipate or identify significant technology trends and developments, or if we do not devote appropriate resources to adapting to such trends and developments, our business could be harmed. Uncertainties about the timing and nature of new network platforms or technologies, modifications to existing platforms or technologies, including text messaging capabilities within these platforms, or changes in customer usage patterns thereof could increase our research and development or service delivery expenses or lead to our increased reliance on certain vendors. Any failure of our services to operate effectively with future network platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our services, result in customer dissatisfaction and harm our business.
Our continued success depends on our ability to maintain and enhance our brands.
We believe that the brand identities we have developed, including associations with trust, customer success, innovation, equality and sustainability have significantly contributed to the success of our business. Maintaining and enhancing the Salesforce brand and our other brands is critical to expanding our base of customers, partners and employees. Our brand strength depends largely on our ability to remain a technology leader and provide high-quality innovative products, services and features in a secure, reliable manner that enhances our customers’ success even as we scale and expand our services. In order to maintain and enhance the strength of our brands, we have made and may in the future make substantial investments to expand or improve our product offerings and services, including our investments in data and AI technologies, or we may enter new markets that may be accompanied by initial or ultimately prove to be .
Further, entry into markets with weaker protection of brands or changes in the legal systems in countries we operate may impact our ability to protect our brands. If we fail to maintain, enhance or protect our brands, or if we incur excessive expenses in our efforts to do so, our business, operating results and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.
We are subject to risks associated with our strategic investments, including partial or complete loss of invested capital. Significant changes in the fair value of this portfolio could negatively impact our financial results.
We manage a portfolio of strategic investments in both privately held and publicly traded companies focused primarily on enterprise cloud companies, technology startups and system integrators. While we invest in companies that we believe are digitally transforming their industries, advancing responsible generative AI, improving customer experiences, helping us expand our solution ecosystem or supporting other corporate initiatives, we may still experience unforeseen reputational harm associated with our investments. Our investments range from early- to late-stage companies, including investments made concurrent with a company’s initial public offering. Investments in early-stage companies are inherently speculative, as these companies may not yet be revenue-generating and could still be in the process of developing their products and services at the time of our investment. The financial success of our investment in any company is typically dependent on a liquidity event, such as a public offering, acquisition or other favorable market event reflecting appreciation to the cost of our initial investment. Our investments may face challenges from regulatory authorities potentially resulting in costs, , or conditions imposed on transactions involving our investment portfolio. In certain cases, our ability to sell these investments may be impacted by contractual obligations to hold the securities for a set period of time after a public offering. All of our investments are subject to a risk of partial or total of invested capital.
We are exposed to volatility in our operating results due to changes in market prices, observable price changes and impairments of our strategic investments. The measurement of our non-marketable equity securities at fair value is inherently subjective and requires management judgment and estimation. The resulting gains or losses could be material depending on market conditions and events, particularly in periods with economic uncertainty, inflation, geopolitical conflict, volatile public equity markets or unsettled global market conditions.
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If third-party developers and vendors do not continue to embrace our technology delivery model and enterprise cloud computing services, or if our customers seek warranties from us for third-party applications, integrations, data and content, our business could be harmed.
Our success depends on the willingness of a growing community of third-party developers and vendors to build applications and provide integrations, data and content that are complementary to our services. Without the continued development of these applications and provision of such integrations, data and content, both current and potential customers may not find our services sufficiently attractive, which could impact future sales. In addition, for those customers who authorize a third-party technology partner to access their data, we do not provide any warranty related to the functionality, security or integrity of the data access, transmission or processing. Despite contract provisions to protect us, customers may look to us to support and provide warranties for the third-party applications, integrations, data and content, even though not developed or sold by us, which may expose us to potential claims, liabilities and obligations, all of which could harm our reputation and our business.
Social, ethical, and regulatory issues, including the development, deployment, use or capabilities of AI in our offerings, may result in reputational harm, legal liability and increased compliance costs.
Policies we adopt or choose not to adopt, on social and ethical issues, particularly regarding the development, deployment or use of our products, may be viewed as controversial by employees, customers, potential customers, or regulators who have varied, evolving and oftentimes conflicting expectations. These perceptions have in the past, and may in the future, impact our ability to attract or retain employees and customers and may result in negative publicity or reputational harm. Our decisions about whether to conduct business with potential customers, or whether to continue or expand relationships with existing customers, may also impact our stakeholder relationships and reputation. Actions taken by our customers or employees, including through the use or misuse of our products or technologies for unlawful activities, improper information sharing or other harmful purposes, may result in reputational harm, regulatory scrutiny or legal liability. Regulatory frameworks such as the EU Digital Services Act (“DSA”), the EU AI Act and other rapidly evolving and sometimes global laws and regulations related to AI, privacy and consumer protection could increase compliance costs, restrict features or data flows, launches and us to or .
We are increasingly building AI into many of our offerings, including generative and agentic AI. As with many technical innovations, AI offerings, such as Agentforce, and our Agentforce 360 Platform present additional risks and challenges that could affect customer adoption and therefore our business. For example, the development and deployment of AI offerings, including those involving information regarding our customers’ customers, raise emerging ethical, legal and operational considerations. If we enable or offer solutions that draw controversy due to their perceived or actual impact on human rights, privacy, employment or other social concerns, we may experience new or heightened governmental or regulatory scrutiny, investigations, enforcement actions, fines or penalties and reputational or competitive harm.
As we develop and deploy AI applications in our products and services, including in customer-facing contexts, the speed, scale and complexity of related data processing may increase. AI applications may be targeted or misused, or may perform in ways that are inaccurate, biased, unreliable or otherwise harmful, or that implicate personal or proprietary data in ways that may be difficult to anticipate, detect or control. Such issues could result in regulatory scrutiny, litigation, contractual disputes, loss of customer trust or reputational harm.
Inadequate or ineffective AI development, testing, deployment, content labeling, governance, monitoring or oversight, whether by us or others, could result in our AI applications not operating as intended or with reduced functionality, reduced acceptance of our products and services or diminished confidence in the decisions, predictions, analysis or other content that our AI applications produce. Such risks may be heightened as AI applications are integrated into a broader range of our products and services. This could subject us to regulatory scrutiny, competitive harm, legal liability and reputational damage.
We may rely in part on third-party models, datasets, cloud infrastructure or other technologies in developing or offering certain AI applications. Our reliance on such third parties exposes us to risks relating to performance, availability, security vulnerabilities, intellectual property claims, licensing restrictions, cost increases or changes in terms of service. If a third-party provider modifies, suspends or terminates access to its models, data or infrastructure, or if such technologies fail to perform as expected, our ability to offer, scale or support certain AI applications may be adversely affected, and we may incur additional costs to mitigate such impacts.
The rapid evolution of AI technologies and related regulatory requirements will require the allocation of significant resources to develop, test, monitor and maintain our products and services in order to comply with applicable laws and regulations and to address concerns relating to accuracy, bias, transparency, explainability, security and data provenance. Uncertainty surrounding new and emerging AI applications, including generative AI content creation and AI agents, may require additional investment in compliance programs, governance frameworks, licensing arrangements, documentation, auditing and risk mitigation processes, which may be complex, costly and could impact our profit margins. Moreover,
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expansion of our AI capabilities to content generation, including through Agentforce and other generative AI offerings, introduces additional risks and responsibilities.
AI technologies may produce content that is inaccurate, misleading, biased, offensive or unsafe, and may implicate privacy, security or intellectual property rights, including through the generation of copyrighted or other protected material. If our customers or others rely on such content to their detriment, or if regulators or rights holders assert claims relating to AI-generated content, we may be exposed to litigation, regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, indemnification obligations, monetary penalties or other liabilities, or reputational harm. Developing, testing and deploying AI technologies may also increase the cost profile of our offerings due to the computing costs required. If we are unable to effectively mitigate these risks, or if our mitigation efforts result in excessive costs, our reputation, business, operating results and financial condition may be affected.
The evolving landscape related to environmental, social and governance matters may expose us to risks that could adversely affect our reputation and performance.
Equality and sustainability are core values of the Company. In furtherance of these values, we have in the past and may in the future establish and disclose quantitative and qualitative statements related to equality and sustainability matters, which are subject to numerous risks and dependencies. The proliferation of regulations and guidance addressing climate, human capital and other topics at the regional, state and national levels has required and may continue to require significant effort and resources, and our practices, processes and controls may not ensure compliance with evolving standards. Further, various regulations or guidance may conflict with each other, making universal compliance challenging as a multinational company, and our status as a government contractor in various jurisdictions, including but not limited to the U.S. where we are headquartered, may also result in greater exposure or differentiated obligations or requirements with which we would seek to comply. The standards and frameworks for tracking and reporting on these matters continue to evolve, and our use, interpretation or application of such frameworks and standards may change from time to time or differ from those of other companies, which may result in a lack of consistent or meaningful comparative data from period to period or between Salesforce and other companies. In addition, our practices and disclosures may not , appropriately respond to the of or be supported by all investors, customers, partners, regulators, enforcement authorities or other stakeholders, whose expectations and requirements are evolving, varied, and oftentimes . Any of, non-compliance with or to meet such expectations or requirements, or publicity related to our practices or disclosures, could result in to our reputation, our ability to attract or retain employees, and our as an investment, business partner, acquiror or service provider, could us to increased or to regulatory or enforcement actions or , and could cause us to incur increased costs to address or such actions.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
Privacy concerns and laws as well as evolving regulation of cloud computing, AI services, cross-border data transfers and other domestic or foreign regulations may limit the use and adoption of our services and adversely affect our business.
Regulation related to the provision of services over the Internet continues to evolve, as federal, state and foreign governments adopt new, or modify existing, laws and regulations addressing data privacy, cybersecurity, data protection, data sovereignty and the collection, storage, hosting, transfer, use and other processing of data. The volume, complexity and scope of these regulatory requirements may continue to increase, including in response to heightened geopolitical tensions. In some cases, data privacy laws and regulations, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), impose obligations directly on us as both a data controller and a data processor, as well as on many of our customers. In addition, domestic data privacy laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CCPA”), and similar laws that have passed, gone into effect or are being considered in numerous other U.S. states, impose obligations on us and many of our customers, potentially as both a covered business and service provider.
These laws continue to evolve and expand, including through the adoption of new comprehensive data protection regimes such as India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, and through the introduction of additional implementing rules and regulations in various jurisdictions. As a result, we and our customers may become subject to additional regulatory burdens. New EU laws, including the DSA, the Data Act and the AI Act, have also been adopted and, depending on how they are implemented, interpreted and enforced, may impose additional rules, restrictions or compliance requirements on the development, deployment or use of our products and services, including AI-enabled features.
Historically, certain legal frameworks have provided safe harbors to companies that host or transmit content provided by others, including limitations on liability for monetary damages arising from copyright infringement or defamation based on customer-provided content. There is increasing legislative, regulatory and judicial scrutiny of these safe harbors, and ongoing legal efforts to repeal, narrow or limit these protections that were previously available to us. The loss or further erosion of these protections may require us to alter, limit or discontinue certain of our services, or may impose additional contractual terms on customers to mitigate potential liability for customer misconduct.
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Compliance with these laws and regulations may require us to make changes to our practices, products or services to enable us or our customers to meet applicable legal requirements, and may increase our potential liability exposure through new or higher potential penalties, fines, investigations or litigation, including in connection with data breaches. Privacy and data protection laws and regulations are also subject to differing interpretations and may be inconsistent or conflicting across jurisdictions. These factors have increased scrutiny from customers, particularly those in the public sector and highly regulated industries and may be perceived differently from customer to customer. In addition, we may be subject to increased liability exposure or regulatory scrutiny related to the use of certain technologies associated with the collection, management or processing of data, including the use of cookies and similar technologies. These developments could reduce demand for our services, require us to take on more contractual obligations, restrict our ability to store, transfer and otherwise process data or, in some cases, limit our or our customers’ ability to offer our services in certain locations, deploy our solutions, reach current or prospective customers, or derive insights from customer data on a global basis. For example, statutory available through a private right of action for certain data under the CCPA may increase our and our customers’ potential liability exposure and the demands customers place on us.
In July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, one of the mechanisms that previously permitted transfers of personal data from the European Economic Area (“EEA”) to the United States. Even though the CJEU decision upheld the use of Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) as a lawful transfer mechanism, the decision created ongoing uncertainty regarding EU-to-U.S. data transfers. While the EU and U.S. governments have since adopted the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework to facilitate such transfers and address the concerns raised by the CJEU, it remains uncertain whether this framework will withstand future legal challenges. As a result, regulators may continue to interpret the CJEU’s decision and the reasoning underlying it as significantly restricting certain cross-border data transfers increasing the cost and complexity of providing our services in certain markets. Certain countries outside of the EEA have enacted or are considering enacting laws that require varying degrees of local data residency or localization. Additionally, recent governmental actions and geopolitical developments have increased the perceived risk that our services, particularly in the EU, could be disrupted, suspended or terminated.
The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, privacy laws, regulations and standards may limit the use and adoption of our services, reduce overall demand for our services, make it more difficult to meet expectations from our commitments to customers and our customers’ customers, lead to significant fines, penalties or liabilities for noncompliance, impact our reputation or slow the pace at which we close sales transactions particularly where customers request specific warranties or broad indemnities for noncompliance with privacy laws, any of which could harm our business.
In addition to government activity, privacy advocates and industry groups have established or may establish new self-regulatory standards or voluntary certification requirements that customers may expect us to meet. If we are unable to maintain required certifications or comply with such standards, our ability to provide our services to certain customers could be adversely affected. We have also observed increased private enforcement of data protection obligations, including through private actions for alleged noncompliance, which could result in litigation, harm to our business, reputational harm or liability. For example, in 2020 we were named as a defendant in a legal proceeding brought by a Dutch privacy advocacy group (the Privacy Collective) on behalf of certain Dutch citizens alleging violations of the GDPR and Dutch Telecommunications Act. Although the claims were initially dismissed, that decision was later reversed on appeal, and that matter remains pending before the Dutch Supreme Court. Although we believe we have defenses in these or similar matters, current or future of this nature could cause reputational or liability. In addition, a shift in consumers’ data privacy expectations or other social, economic or political developments could impact regulatory enforcement priorities, require our cooperation with regulators and increase the cost of compliance with applicable privacy regulations.
Furthermore, the uncertain and evolving regulatory environment and broader trust climate may heighten concerns regarding data privacy, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, particularly where advanced analytics or automated functionality is involved, which could cause our customers or their end users to limit the data they provide or their use of our products and services. Even the perception that personal data is not adequately protected or that our products or services do not comply with applicable regulatory requirements could inhibit sales, reduce adoption of our offerings or otherwise adversely affect our business.
Industry-specific regulations and other requirements and standards are evolving and industry-specific laws, regulations, interpretive positions or standards could harm our business.
Our customers and potential customers conduct business in a variety of industries, including financial services, the public sector, healthcare and telecommunications. Regulators in certain industries have adopted and may in the future adopt regulations or interpretive positions regarding the use of cloud computing, AI services and other outsourced services. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, industry-specific laws, regulations and interpretive positions may limit our customers’ use and adoption of our services and reduce overall demand for our services. Compliance with these regulations may also require us to devote greater resources to support certain customers, which may increase costs and lengthen sales cycles. For example, some financial services regulators have imposed guidelines for use of cloud computing services that
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mandate specific controls or require financial services enterprises to obtain regulatory approval prior to outsourcing certain functions. If we are unable to comply with these guidelines or controls, or if our customers are unable to obtain regulatory approval to use our services where required, our business may be harmed. In addition, an inability to satisfy the standards of certain voluntary third-party certification bodies that our customers may expect may have an adverse impact on our business and results. Any inability in the future to achieve or maintain industry-specific certifications or other requirements or standards relevant to our customers may harm our business and adversely affect our results.
Further, in some cases, industry-specific, regionally-specific or product-specific laws, regulations or interpretive positions may impact our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, partners and data providers, to collect, augment, analyze, use, transfer and share personal and other information that is integral to certain services we provide. The interpretation of many of these statutes, regulations and rulings is evolving in the courts and administrative agencies and an inability to comply may have an adverse impact on our business and results. This impact may be particularly acute in countries that have passed or are considering passing legislation that requires data to remain localized “in country,” as this may impose financial costs on companies required to store data in jurisdictions not of their choosing and to use nonstandard operational processes that add complexity and are difficult and costly to integrate with global processes. This is also true with respect to the global proliferation of laws regulating the financial services industry, including its use of cloud services. In Europe, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (“DORA”) aims to ensure the resilience of the EU financial sectors, including through mandatory risk management, incident reporting, resilience testing and third-party outsourcing restrictions. The UK has implemented similar legislation and other countries may follow.
Further, jurisdictions are increasingly applying existing data privacy, consumer protection and other laws to AI, including emerging AI technologies such as generative AI, and are also enacting, or considering enacting, AI-specific legal frameworks, such as the EU AI Act, and the Utah Artificial Intelligence Policy Act, the Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act and the draft CCPA regulations on automated decision-making technology. As these laws and regulations are implemented, interpreted and enforced, they may impose additional compliance obligations or restrictions on our products, services or business practices. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with applicable AI-related legal requirements could have an adverse impact on our business.
There are also various statutes, regulations and regulatory rulings governing direct email marketing and text messaging, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) and related Federal Communication Commission orders, which impose significant restrictions on the use of telephone calls and text messages to mobile telephone numbers without prior consent. We have been, and may in the future be, subject to class action and individual lawsuits alleging that one of our businesses or customers violated the TCPA or similar communications-based laws. A determination that we or our customers failed to comply with such requirements could expose us to significant statutory damages or other liabilities that could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business. In addition, many jurisdictions across the world are considering, or have begun implementing, changes to antitrust and competition laws, regulations or interpretative positions intended to enhance competition in digital markets or address practices perceived to be anticompetitive. These developments may result in new or expanded legal or regulatory obligations that require changes to our business practices, increased compliance costs, or other measures that could affect our business and operating results.
We have been and may in the future be sued by third parties for various claims, including alleged infringement of proprietary rights.
We are involved in various legal matters arising from the normal course of business activities. These include claims, suits, government investigations and other proceedings involving alleged infringement of third-party patents and other intellectual property rights, as well as commercial, corporate and securities, labor and employment, class actions, wage and hour, antitrust, data privacy, cybersecurity and other matters.
The software and Internet industries are characterized by the existence of many patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyrights and by frequent litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We have received in the past and may receive in the future communications from third parties, including practicing entities and non-practicing entities, claiming that we have infringed their intellectual property rights. We have also been, and may in the future be, sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their claimed proprietary rights. Our technologies may be subject to injunction if they are found to infringe the rights of a third party or we may be required to pay damages, or both. Further, many of our subscription agreements require us to indemnify our customers for third-party intellectual property , which would increase the cost to us of an ruling on such a claim.
In addition, we have in the past been, and may in the future be, sued by third parties who seek to target us for actions taken by our customers, including through the use or misuse of our products. For example, we have been subject to allegations in legal proceedings that we should be liable for the use of certain of our products by third parties. Although we believe we have a strong defense for these claims, such claims could cause reputational harm to our brand or result in liability. Regardless of outcome, these types of claims could cause reputational harm to our brand or result in liability.
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Our exposure to risks associated with various claims may be increased as a result of acquisitions of other companies. For example, we are subject to ongoing securities class action litigation and related stockholder derivative claims brought against Slack that remain outstanding, and as to which we may ultimately be subject to liability or settlement costs. Additionally, we may have a lower level of visibility into the development process with respect to intellectual property or the care taken to safeguard against infringement risks with respect to acquired companies or technologies. In addition, third parties have made claims in connection with our acquisitions and may do so in the future, and they may also make infringement and similar or related claims after we have acquired technology that had not been asserted prior to our acquisition.
The outcome of any claims or litigation, regardless of the merits, is inherently uncertain. Any claims or lawsuits, and the disposition of such claims and lawsuits, whether through settlement or licensing discussions, or litigation, could be time-consuming and expensive to resolve, divert management attention from executing our business plan, result in efforts to enjoin our activities, lead to attempts on the part of other parties to pursue similar claims and, in the case of intellectual property claims, require us to change our technology, change our business practices, pay monetary damages or enter into short- or long-term royalty or licensing agreements.
Any adverse determination or settlement could prevent us from offering our services to others, could be material to our financial condition or cash flows, or both, or could otherwise adversely affect our current or future operating results, including our results of operations or cash flows in a particular period.
Any failure to obtain registration or protection of our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand, causing us to incur significant expenses and harm our business.
If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights adequately, our competitors may gain access to our technology, affecting our brand, causing us to incur significant expenses and harming our business. Any of our patents, trademarks or other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. While we have many U.S. patents and pending U.S. and international patent applications, we may be unable to obtain patent protection for the technology covered in our patent applications or the patent protection may not be obtained quickly enough to meet our business needs. In addition, our existing patents and any patents issued in the future may not provide us with competitive advantages, or may be successfully challenged by third parties. Similar uncertainty applies to our U.S. and international trademark registrations and applications. Furthermore, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain, and we also may face proposals to change the scope of protection for some intellectual property rights in the U.S. and elsewhere. Additionally, the intellectual property ownership and license rights, including copyright, surrounding AI technologies, which we are increasingly building into our product offerings, has not been fully addressed by U.S. courts or other federal or state laws or regulations, and some U.S. governmental entities and courts have expressed the view that U.S. copyright and patent protection should be limited to protecting and works of authorship created by humans. If this position becomes widely accepted, intellectual property ownership and license rights, including copyright, may be limited, or not available at all, for or works developed in part or wholly by AI technologies. Furthermore, the use or adoption of AI technologies in our products and services may us to copyright or other intellectual property related to AI training or output. patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available to us in every country in which our services are available and legal changes and uncertainty in various countries’ intellectual property regimes may result in making conduct that we believe is lawful to be deemed of others’ rights. The laws of some foreign countries may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the U.S., and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be . Also, our involvement in standard-setting activity, our contribution to open source projects, various competition law regimes or the need to obtain licenses from others may require us to license our intellectual property in certain circumstances. Accordingly, our efforts, we may be to prevent third parties from using our intellectual property.
We may be required to spend significant resources and expense to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. We may initiate claims or litigation against third parties for infringement of our proprietary rights or to establish the validity of our proprietary rights. If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights, it could impact our ability to protect our technology and brand. Furthermore, any litigation, whether or not it is resolved in our favor, could result in significant expense to us, cause us to divert time and resources from our core business, and harm our business.
We may be subject to risks related to government contracts and related procurement regulations.
Our business depends, in part, on sales to government organizations, and significant changes in the contracting or fiscal policies of such government organizations could adversely affect our business and operating results. Contracting with federal, state, local and foreign governments or state-owned entities subjects us to various procurement regulations and other requirements relating to these contracts’ formation, administration and performance, and how we engage with government officials. Government contracts may also at times be modified or terminated for convenience. We are from time to time subject to audits, inquiries and investigations relating to our government contracts, which may result in adverse perceptions of our business, reductions in utilization of our services or termination of our contracts without cause and at any time. Additionally, any violations could result in various civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination of
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contracts, refunding or suspending of payments, forfeiture of profits, payment of fines and suspension or debarment from future government business, as well as reputational harm. Additionally, our relationships with certain government entities may result in negative publicity or reputational harm. Furthermore, pressures on and uncertainty regarding the U.S. federal government’s budget and potential changes in budgetary priorities could adversely affect the funding for and purchases of our services by government organizations. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could adversely impact our future sales, costs of doing business and operating results.
We may be subject to risks from governmental sanctions and export and import controls that could impair our ability to compete in international markets and subject us to liability if we are not in full compliance with applicable laws.
Our solutions are subject to trade control laws and regulations where we conduct our business activities, including the U.S. Commerce Department’s Export Administration Regulations, U.S. customs regulations, U.S. supply chain regulations and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. If we fail to comply with applicable trade control laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to substantial civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of trade privileges; fines, which may be imposed on us and responsible employees or managers; and, in extreme cases, the incarceration of responsible employees or managers. Obtaining necessary authorizations, including any required licenses, may be time-consuming, requires expenditure of corporate resources, is not guaranteed, and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities or the ability to realize value from certain acquisitions or engagements. Acquisitions may also subject us to successor liability and other integration compliance risks. Furthermore, export control and economic sanctions laws and regulations may prohibit or limit the transfer of certain products and services to or sanctioned countries, governments and parties. We can provide no assurance that any of the precautions we take to prevent our solutions from being provisioned or provided to sanctions targets in of applicable regulations will be , and, accordingly, our solutions could be provisioned or provided to those targets, including by our resellers or other third parties, which could have consequences for our business, including government , and reputational . Changes in our solutions or trade control laws and regulations may create in the introduction, sale and deployment of our solutions in international markets or prevent the export or import of our solutions to certain countries, governments or persons altogether. Any decreased use of our solutions or on our ability to export or sell our solutions may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Sanctions and export and import control regulations in the United States and other countries are subject to change and uncertainty, including as a result of tariff policy changes, rapidly evolving technology, increased government regulation of AI and cloud service solutions, and geopolitical developments such as events affecting relations between the United States and China, multi-jurisdictional sanctions on Russia, the war in Ukraine and regional in the Middle East. Regulators in the United States and elsewhere have signaled an increased emphasis on sanctions and export control enforcement, including efforts to combat of services to sanctioned countries and parties, several recent high-profile enforcement actions and increased pressure for companies to self- potential .
Financial Risks
Because we generally recognize revenue from subscriptions for our services over the term of the subscription, downturns or upturns in new business may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.
We generally recognize revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their subscription and support agreements, which are typically 12 to 36 months. As a result, most of the revenue we report in each quarter is the result of subscription and support agreements entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any one quarter may not be reflected in our revenue results for that quarter but will negatively impact our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our services, and changes in our attrition rate, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers must be recognized over the applicable subscription and support term.
If we experience significant fluctuations in our rate of anticipated growth and fail to balance our expenses with our revenue forecasts, our business could be harmed and our stock price could decline.
Due to the unpredictability of future general economic and financial market conditions, we may not be able to realize our projected revenue growth plans. We plan our expense and investment levels based on estimates of future revenue and future anticipated rate of growth. We may not be able to adjust our spending appropriately if the addition of new subscriptions or the renewals of existing subscriptions fall short of our expectations, and unanticipated events may cause us to incur expenses beyond what we anticipated. A portion of our expenses may also be fixed in nature for some minimum amount of time, such as with costs capitalized to obtain revenue contracts, data center and infrastructure service contracts or office leases, so it may not be possible to reduce costs in a timely manner, or at all, without the payment of fees to exit certain obligations early. Additionally, if sales through indirect channels or for consumption-based product offerings increase, this may lead to greater difficulty in forecasting revenue and anticipated rate of growth. As a result, our revenues, operating results and cash flows may
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fluctuate significantly on a quarterly basis and revenue growth rates may not be sustainable and may decline in the future. If we are not able to provide continued operating margin expansion, our business could be harmed and our stock price could decline.
Unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate and additional tax liabilities and global tax developments may impact our financial results.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and various other jurisdictions. Significant judgment is often required in the determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes. Our effective tax rate could be impacted by changes in our earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in operations, changes in non-deductible expenses, changes in the tax effects of stock-based compensation expense, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and our ability to utilize them, the applicability of withholding taxes, effects from acquisitions and changes in accounting principles and tax laws. Any changes, ambiguity or uncertainty in taxing jurisdictions’ administrative interpretations, decisions, policies and positions could also materially impact our income tax liabilities. For example, as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (“OBBBA”), we could be subject to Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (“CAMT”). While certain changes brought forth by the OBBBA, notably, the immediate deduction of domestic research and development expenditures favorably impact our cash flows from operating activities, our tax provision may be adversely impacted to the extent additional clarification or interpretive guidance related to the OBBBA is released, or if there are changes to our valuation allowance assessment related to CAMT.
We may also be subject to additional tax liabilities and penalties due to changes in non-income based taxes resulting from changes in federal, state, local or international tax laws, changes in taxing jurisdictions’ administrative interpretations, decisions, policies and positions, results of tax examinations, settlements or judicial decisions, changes in accounting principles, or changes to our business operations, including as a result of acquisitions. Any resulting increase in our tax obligation or cash taxes paid could adversely affect our cash flows and financial results.
We are also subject to tax examinations or engaged in alternative resolutions in multiple jurisdictions. While we regularly evaluate new information that may change our judgment resulting in recognition, derecognition or changes in measurement of a tax position taken, there can be no assurance that the final determination of any examinations will not have an adverse effect on our operating results or financial position.
As our business continues to grow, increasing our brand recognition and profitability, we may be subject to increased scrutiny and corresponding tax disputes, which may impact our cash flows and financial results. Furthermore, our growing prominence may bring public attention to our tax profile, and if perceived negatively, may cause brand or reputational harm.
Global tax developments may have a material impact to our business, cash flows, or financial results. For example, heightened interest in multinationals participating in the digital economy led many countries to adopt Pillar Two, a 15% corporate minimum tax proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”). In January 2026, the OECD introduced new guidance including a "side-by-side safe harbor" which, if elected, exempts U.S. parented groups from certain provisions of Pillar Two. However, the election does not relieve foreign subsidiaries from certain jurisdiction specific minimum taxes. The guidance will need to be incorporated into local tax legislation to be effective.
We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates that have in the past and could in the future negatively impact our financial results and cash flows from changes in the value of the U.S. Dollar versus local currencies.
We primarily conduct our business in the following regions: the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. The expanding global scope of our business exposes us to risk of fluctuations in foreign currency markets, including in emerging markets. This exposure is the result of selling in multiple currencies, growth in our international investments, additional headcount in foreign locations, and operating in countries where the functional currency is the local currency. Specifically, our results of operations and cash flows are subject to currency fluctuations primarily in Euro, British Pound Sterling, Japanese Yen, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, Brazilian Real and Indian Rupee against the U.S. Dollar. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve, economic and political conditions change and evolving tax regulations come into effect. The fluctuations of currencies in which we conduct business can both increase and decrease our overall revenue and expenses for any given fiscal period. Furthermore, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, combined with the seasonality of our business, could affect our ability to accurately predict our future results and earnings.
Additionally, global events as well as geopolitical developments, including the war in Ukraine and regional conflict in the Middle East, fluctuating commodity prices, uncertainty regarding changes in trade policy and inflation, have caused, and may in the future cause, global economic uncertainty and uncertainty about the interest rate environment, which has and could in the future amplify the volatility of currency fluctuations. Although we attempt to mitigate some of this volatility and related risks through foreign currency hedging, our hedging activities are limited in scope and may not effectively offset the adverse financial impacts that may result from unfavorable movements in foreign currency exchange rates, which could adversely impact our financial condition or results of operations.
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Our debt service obligations, lease commitments and other contractual obligations may adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
As of January 31, 2026, we had a substantial level of outstanding debt, including our Senior Notes. We are also party to the Revolving Loan Credit Agreement, which provides for our $5.0 billion Credit Facility, as well as the Informatica Credit Agreements. Although there were no outstanding borrowings under the Credit Facility as of January 31, 2026, we may use the proceeds of future borrowings under the Credit Facility for general corporate purposes. In November 2025, we borrowed the full $6.0 billion available under the Informatica Credit Agreements to finance a portion of the cash consideration for our acquisition of Informatica, repay existing indebtedness of Informatica and its subsidiaries, and pay related fees, costs, and expenses.
In addition to the outstanding and potential debt obligations above, we have also recorded substantial liabilities associated with noncancellable future payments on our long-term lease agreements. We also have significant other contractual commitments, including leases that have not yet commenced and commitments with infrastructure service providers, which are not reflected on our consolidated balance sheets.
Maintenance of our indebtedness and contractual commitments and any additional issuances of indebtedness could:
• impair our ability to obtain additional financing in the future for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, general corporate or other purposes;
• cause us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flows from operations toward debt service obligations and principal repayments; and
• make us more vulnerable to downturns in our business, our industry or the economy in general.
Our ability to meet our expense and debt obligations will depend on our future performance, which will be affected by financial, business, economic, regulatory and other factors. We will not be able to control many of these factors, such as economic conditions and governmental regulations. Further, our operations may not generate sufficient cash to enable us to service our debt or contractual obligations resulting from our leases. If we fail to make a payment on our debt, we could be in default on such debt. If we are at any time unable to generate sufficient cash flows from operations to service our indebtedness when payment is due, we may be required to attempt to renegotiate the terms of the instruments relating to the indebtedness, seek to refinance all or a portion of the indebtedness or obtain additional financing. There can be no assurance that we would be able to successfully renegotiate such terms, that any such refinancing would be possible or that any additional financing could be obtained on terms that are or acceptable to us. Any new or refinanced debt may be subject to substantially higher interest rates, which could affect our financial condition and impact our business.
In addition, adverse changes by any rating agency to our credit ratings may negatively impact our reputation, the value and liquidity of both our debt and equity securities, as well as the potential costs associated with a refinancing of our debt. Downgrades in our credit ratings could also affect the terms of any such refinancing or future financing or restrict our ability to obtain additional financing in the future.
The indentures governing our Senior Notes and the Revolving Loan Credit Agreement impose restrictions on us and require us to maintain compliance with specified covenants. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control. A failure to comply with the covenants and other provisions of our outstanding debt could result in events of default under such instruments, which could permit acceleration of all of our debt and borrowings. Any required repayment of our debt as a result of a fundamental change or other acceleration would lower our current cash on our balance sheet such that we would not have those funds available for use in our business.
Lease accounting guidance requires that we record a liability for operating lease activity on our consolidated balance sheet, which increases both our assets and liabilities and therefore may impact our ability to obtain the necessary financing from financial institutions at commercially viable rates or at all. Our lease terms may include options to extend or terminate the lease. Periods beyond the noncancellable term of the lease are included in the measurement of the lease liability and associated asset only when it is reasonably certain that we will exercise the associated extension option or waive the termination option. We reassess the lease term if and when a significant event or change in circumstances occurs within our control. The potential impact of these options to extend could be material to our financial position and financial results.
Risks Related to Owning Our Common Stock
Our quarterly results are likely to fluctuate, which may cause the value of our common stock to decline substantially.
Our quarterly results have fluctuated, and are likely to fluctuate in the future, as a result of a number of known and unknown factors, including: the factors described in this Item 1, Part 1A of this Annual Report; the cyclical nature and seasonality of our sales cycle and our customers’ businesses, especially our Commerce service offering customers; the global economic impact of geopolitical events, including ongoing conflicts and uncertainty about the interest rate environment; the timing of contract execution and term software license sales; the amount and timing of operating costs and capital expenditures related to the operations and expansion of our business; the timing of commission, bonus and other compensation payments to
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employees; expenses related to our real estate or changes in the nature or extent of our use of existing real estate, including our office leases and data centers; expenses related to significant, unusual or discrete events, which are recorded in the period in which the events occur, including litigation or other dispute-related settlement payments; and equity or debt issuances, including as consideration in or in conjunction with acquisitions. In addition, our fiscal fourth quarter has historically been our strongest quarter for new business and renewals, and the year-over-year compounding effect of this seasonality in billing patterns and overall new business and renewal activity causes the value of invoices that we generate in the fourth quarter to continually increase in proportion to our billings in the other three quarters of our fiscal year. As a result, our fiscal first quarter has typically been our largest collections and operating cash flow quarter. Many of these factors are outside of our control, and the occurrence of one or more of them might negatively and materially impact our operating results.
Our stock price is likely to be volatile and could subject us to litigation.
The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has historically been highly volatile. Accordingly, our stock price has been and is likely to continue to be subject to wide fluctuations. Our stock price could be affected by many factors, some of which are beyond our control, including: the factors described in this Item 1, Part 1A of this Annual Report; announcements or rumors by us or our competitors regarding technological innovations, new services or service enhancements, strategic alliances, mergers, other strategic acquisitions or significant agreements, customer additions, customer cancellations or delays in customer purchases; investor sentiment regarding AI-related business models, our competitors, and our industry in general; variations in our financial results and how those results compare to analyst expectations; changes to guidance or long-range targets, in the estimates of our operating results or in recommendations by securities analysts that follow our stock; variations in investors’ or analysts’ valuation metrics and modeling for our business; the issuance of, changes to, or our ability to meet or exceed, our forward-looking guidance and long-range targets, estimates or recommendations by analysts, or expectations of investors, analysts or others; the coverage of our business in the press, social media, and analyst community; the economy as a whole, geopolitical conditions, including global trade and health , market conditions in our and our customers’ industries, and financial institution ; trading activity by our stockholders, including institutional or activist investors; changes in the amounts and frequency of share repurchases or dividends; issuance of equity, debt or other convertible securities; changes to our credit ratings; and issues impacting our brand and reputation.
Some companies that have experienced volatility in their stock price have been the subject of securities class action litigation, such as the securities litigation brought against Slack before our acquisition. Such litigation, whether against us or an acquired subsidiary, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources and any liability resulting from or the settlement of such litigation could result in material adverse impacts to our operating cash flows or results of operations for a given period.
Provisions in our governing documents and Delaware law might discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of the Company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress our stock price.
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could depress our stock price by acting to discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of the Company or changes in our management that our stockholders may deem advantageous. These provisions among other things:
• permit the Board to establish the number of directors;
• authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board could use to implement a stockholder rights plan (also known as a “poison pill”);
• prohibit stockholder action by written consent, requiring all stockholder actions to be taken at a stockholder meeting;
• permit the Board to make, alter or repeal our bylaws; and
• establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings.
In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company. Section 203 imposes certain restrictions on merger, business combinations and other transactions between us and holders of 15 percent or more of our common stock.
There can be no assurance that we will continue to declare cash dividends in any particular amounts, or at all.
Whether we continue to pay cash dividends, as well as the rate at which we pay cash dividends, in the future is subject to continued capital availability, general economic and market conditions, applicable laws and agreements and our Board continuing to determine that the declaration of dividends is in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders. The declaration and payment of any dividend may be discontinued at any time and dividend amounts may be reduced at any time. A discontinuation of or reduction in our dividend payments could have a negative effect on our stock price.
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General Risks
Volatile and significantly weakened global economic conditions have in the past and may in the future adversely affect our industry, business and results of operations.
Our overall performance depends in part on worldwide economic and geopolitical conditions. The United States and other key international economies have experienced significant economic and market downturns in the past, and are likely to experience additional cyclical downturns from time to time in which economic activity is impacted by falling demand for a variety of goods and services, restricted credit, poor liquidity, reduced corporate profitability, volatility in credit, equity and foreign exchange markets, inflation, bankruptcies and overall uncertainty with respect to the economy. These economic conditions can arise suddenly and the full impact of such conditions can be difficult to predict. In addition, geopolitical and domestic political developments, such as uncertainty regarding changes in trade policy, including the threat or imposition of tariffs or other trade restrictions and related retaliatory actions, as well as other events beyond our control, such as war in Ukraine and the regional conflict in the Middle East, have increased and may continue to increase levels of political and economic globally and the of global financial markets. Moreover, these conditions have affected and may continue to affect the rate of IT spending; could affect our customers’ ability or willingness to attend our events or to purchase our enterprise cloud computing services; have and may customer purchasing decisions; and have reduced and may in the future reduce the value and duration of customer subscription contracts or cause our customers to seek to modify their existing subscription contracts. All of these risks and conditions could materially affect our future sales, rates and operating results.
Geopolitical crises, natural disasters and other catastrophic events beyond our control have in the past and may in the future materially adversely affect us.
Geopolitical crises, natural disasters or other catastrophic events have in the past and may in the future cause damage or disruption to our people, operations, international commerce and the global economy, and thus could have a strong negative effect on us. Our business operations, as well as the business operations of our customers and third-party providers or suppliers that we rely on, are subject to interruption by geopolitical crises, natural disasters, fire, power or water shutoffs or shortages, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, acts of violence, political and/or civil unrest, acts of war or other military actions, actual or threatened public health emergencies and other events beyond our control. For example, the occurrence of regional , epidemics or a global pandemic have in the past and may in the future materially affect how we and our customers operate our businesses, as well as our operating results and cash flows. Although we maintain management and response plans, if such events occur it could make it or for us to deliver our services to our customers or impact demand for our services, which could materially and affect our financial condition and operating results.
Climate change may have an impact on our business.
While we seek to mitigate our business risks associated with climate change by establishing appropriate environmental programs and partnering with organizations who are focused on mitigating their own climate-related risks, there are inherent climate-related risks where our business is conducted. In particular, increased energy consumption, including as a result of AI-related growth, climate-related events, energy market volatility, and power grid disruptions, may increase the operational costs related to inputs across our value chain, including for data centers. Any of our primary locations may be vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. For example, our offices globally are projected to continue to experience climate-related events at increased frequency, including drought, water scarcity, heat waves, cold waves, flooding, wildfires and resultant air quality impacts and power shutoffs. These events in turn have impacts on inflation risks, the cost and availability of insurance, food security, water security (including for water availability for data center cooling), energy security and on our employees’ health, productivity and well-being. Changing market dynamics, global policy developments and the increasing frequency and impact of extreme weather events on critical infrastructure in the United States and elsewhere have the potential to our business, as well as the business of the companies we invest in, third-party providers or suppliers that we rely on, and our customers, and may cause us to experience higher , and additional costs to maintain or resume operations.
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