September 21, 2026
Day91 Labs Brief — Issue 011: AI
AI revenue is real and growing fast, but the numbers companies use to show it are increasingly their own inventions. Backlog that includes options, ARR definitions that widen mid-year, and asset lives that stretch are doing a lot of the work in this quarter's headlines. Scope: public companies with filings only; private labs are excluded because they file nothing.
1. Salesforce: Agentforce ARR grew, and so did the definition
Evidence tier A — Primary Salesforce Q2 FY27 and Q1 FY27 releases are cited in the attachment.
In fiscal Q2 FY27 (May–Jul 2026), Agentforce ARR exceeded $1.5B, up more than 240%. Starting this quarter, Agentforce ARR also counts Salesforce's AI offerings, Slackbot and Headless 360. In Q1 it was $1.2B. Combined Agentforce and Data 360 ARR reached nearly $3.9B. Total revenue grew 11% to $11.3B, including a $456M Informatica contribution.
Part of the jump from $1.2B to $1.5B comes from folding more products into the metric. The filing doesn't say how much.
Don't use Agentforce ARR growth as a benchmark for agent adoption until Salesforce restates Q1 on the new definition.
Sources
2. Palantir: bookings that include options and can be cancelled
Evidence tier B — Primary Palantir 8-K Exhibit 99.1 is cited; the termination and options caveat is summarized in secondary coverage and requires confirmation in the 10-Q.
Q2 revenue was $1.935B, up 93%. US commercial revenue grew 149% to $764M. US commercial TCV was a record $2.132B, up 153%, and US commercial remaining deal value was $6.238B, up 124%. TCV reflects a contract's potential lifetime value at signing and can include unexercised options. Most contracts carry termination-for-convenience provisions.
The revenue is real and extraordinary. The bookings metrics sit on top of it and count value customers can walk away from.
When benchmarking AI deal sizes against Palantir, compare recognized revenue, not TCV or RDV.
Sources
3. Oracle: $664B of backlog against $19.3B of quarterly revenue
Evidence tier A — Primary Oracle Q1 FY27 and Q4 FY26 8-K Exhibits 99.1 are cited in the attachment; the sequential change is the attachment's own calculation.
In fiscal Q1 FY27 (Jun–Aug 2026), total revenue grew 30% to $19.3B. Cloud infrastructure grew 121%; cloud applications grew 10%; on-premises software fell 3%. RPO reached $664B, up $209B year over year, after more than $30B of new AI cloud contracts. At fiscal year-end in May, RPO was $638B, and Oracle said most of the recent increase came from large AI contracts where the customer prepaid for GPUs or supplied its own.
Sequential RPO growth slowed to about $26B, and the growth is concentrated in a few very large AI contracts. The SaaS business is growing at a tenth of the infrastructure rate.
If you buy Oracle apps, the company's attention and capital are going to infrastructure. Price your renewals accordingly.
Sources
4. CoreWeave: backlog up 246%, interest expense up faster than profit
Evidence tier B — CoreWeave Q2 2026 results are supplied as a summary with Constellation Research coverage; swap for the 8-K and 10-Q before shipping.
Q2 revenue was $2.6B, up 112%. Backlog reached $104.2B, up 246%, excluding more than $25B of commitments signed early in Q3. Adjusted operating income was $128M. Interest expense was $640M, and Q3 interest is guided to $860–940M. Full-year capex is guided to $35–39B. Management said it raised pricing about 25% across SKUs in July.
Demand exceeds supply, and CoreWeave is using that to raise prices. The financing cost of meeting that demand is growing faster than operating profit.
GPU compute is a seller's market. If you buy inference or training capacity, lock multi-quarter pricing now.
Sources
5. Microsoft: 43% Azure growth, and data centers now last 25 years
Evidence tier B — MarketBeat call summary and Directions on Microsoft are secondary sources; swap for the 8-K and 10-K before shipping.
Fiscal Q4 FY26 (Apr–Jun 2026) revenue was $90B, up 18%. Azure grew 43%, and Microsoft expects about 45% in fiscal Q1. Capex was $41B, about two-thirds on short-lived assets like GPUs. Fiscal Q1 capex is expected to exceed $50B. In FY27, Microsoft extends the estimated useful lives of data centers and office buildings from 15 to 25 years.
Demand is still capacity-constrained. The useful-life change spreads depreciation over more years, which will support reported margins while capex keeps rising.
When comparing hyperscaler margins in FY27, adjust for Microsoft's longer asset lives first.
Sources
6. ServiceNow: Q2 subscription revenue was $3,877M, up 24.5%, and cRPO grew 21% to $13.20B
Evidence tier B — ServiceNow 8-K is primary; the margin gap and AI ACV are from secondary coverage and require confirmation.
Q2 subscription revenue was $3,877M, up 24.5%, and cRPO grew 21% to $13.20B. AI ACV passed $1B. The GAAP operating margin was about 4% against a non-GAAP 29.5%, a wide gap driven by acquisition costs.
The supplied figures show subscription revenue and cRPO growth alongside a wide GAAP and non-GAAP operating-margin gap.
When evaluating ServiceNow's AI growth, keep the supplied margin distinction and secondary-source caveat attached to the comparison.
Sources
7. C3.ai: Fiscal Q1 FY27 revenue was $52.4M
Evidence tier A — Primary C3.ai 8-K is cited in the attachment.
Fiscal Q1 FY27 (May–Jul 2026) revenue was $52.4M, with a 32% GAAP gross margin. The headline says bookings rose 73% quarter over quarter, with no base figure given.
The supplied release gives revenue, gross margin, and a bookings growth percentage without the base needed to size it.
Treat the 73% bookings increase as a percentage without a disclosed base figure.
Sources
8. UiPath: ARR grew 12%, but net new ARR fell
Evidence tier A — Primary UiPath Q2 FY27 release is cited in the attachment.
ARR grew 12% to $1.938B, the same rate as last quarter, and net new ARR fell to $37M from $49M. Net retention held at 109%. Agentic products haven't moved the growth rate yet.
The supplied figures show a steady ARR growth rate, lower net new ARR, and unchanged net retention while agentic products have not moved the growth rate.
Compare agentic-product progress with net new ARR and the unchanged growth rate rather than treating the product label as acceleration.
Sources
9. Salesforce's EPS: GAAP EPS of $4.29 more than doubled
Evidence tier B — Pulse 2 supplies the strategic-investment gains detail; confirm in the 10-Q.
GAAP EPS of $4.29 more than doubled, but $2.61B of gains on strategic investments contributed about $2.43 of it.
The supplied figures show that strategic-investment gains contributed about $2.43 to the reported GAAP EPS.
Confirm the contribution in the 10-Q before using the reported EPS as a measure of operating performance.
Sources
10. Microsoft Copilot: Microsoft 365 Copilot passed 30 million paid seats
Evidence tier B — MarketBeat call summary is a secondary source; confirm the seat count and sequential additions in Microsoft's primary filings or release.
Microsoft 365 Copilot passed 30 million paid seats, with net seat additions more than doubling sequentially. It is the largest disclosed seat count for a workplace AI product.
The supplied call-summary sentence describes a 30 million paid-seat count and more than doubling net additions.
Use the disclosed seat count as a comparison point only after confirming the secondary-source report.
Sources
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