Salesforce
Verified“US CRM giant with a European storefront.”
- Listing
- NYSE: CRM
- Revenue
- $37.9B (FY2025)
- Employees
- 76,453
- EU footprint
- Dublin EMEA HQ
17 = midpoint of Control 13 & Data 20
Sovereignty Quadrant
Control ↑ who owns & governs the company · Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.
Every number below traces to 13 sourced facts across 10 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 3 open questions hold confidence at 88% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
15
Incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Francisco; the controlling legal entity sits entirely under US jurisdiction, with EU entities being subsidiaries. EU law reaches the local subsidiaries but not the parent.
Why 15? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Salesforce, Inc. is incorporated in the State of Delaware, USA.
SEC EDGAR (Salesforce 10-K FY2025) · as of 2025-03-05
Principal executive offices are in San Francisco, California, USA.
SEC EDGAR (Salesforce 10-K FY2025) · as of 2025-03-05
Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7B in 2021, folding it into the US-controlled group.
SEC EDGAR (Slack Form 8-K, 2021) · as of 2021-07-21
Control & Ownership
10
Roughly 81-83% institutional ownership dominated by US asset managers (Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street); founder Marc Benioff holds under 4%. Both voting control and economic majority are US-based, with a US listing.
Why 10? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Institutional investors hold roughly 81-83% of Salesforce shares.
Yahoo Finance / Simply Wall St · as of 2025
Vanguard (~9%) and BlackRock (~7.8%) are the two largest holders, both US asset managers.
Fintel (CRM institutional ownership) · as of 2025
Founder Marc Benioff holds roughly 3.9% of shares, the largest individual stake.
WallStreetZen (CRM ownership) · as of 2026
Shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker CRM.
SEC EDGAR (Salesforce 10-K FY2025) · as of 2025-03-05
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
18
An EU Operating Zone keeps EU customer data physically in EU regions with EU-based support, which is meaningfully better than US-only hosting; but Hyperforce runs on US hyperscalers (AWS, GCP, Azure) under a US parent, leaving CLOUD Act exposure intact. EU residency is real but not sovereign.
Why 18? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Hyperforce runs on public cloud infrastructure from AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure — all US providers.
Salesforce Hyperforce public cloud page · as of 2026
The Hyperforce EU Operating Zone stores and processes EU customer data within the EU with EU-based support staff.
Salesforce Hyperforce EU OZ · as of 2026
As a US parent on US-provider infrastructure, Salesforce remains subject to the US CLOUD Act regardless of data location.
Salesforce transatlantic data privacy update · as of 2025
Operations & People
22
Real and large EU footprint — a Dublin EMEA headquarters with 2,500+ staff and hubs across Europe — but the company is US-centered: San Francisco HQ, US founder-chair-CEO, and USD reporting. EU operations are a regional arm, not the center of gravity.
Why 22? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Salesforce's EMEA headquarters is in Dublin, with 2,500+ employees and offices across Europe.
Salesforce press release (Dublin Tower) · as of 2023-05-04
Salesforce had 76,453 employees company-wide as of January 31, 2025, headquartered in the US.
SEC EDGAR (Salesforce 10-K FY2025) · as of 2025-01-31
Marc Benioff (US-based) is Chair and CEO; the company reports financials in US dollars.
SEC EDGAR (Salesforce 8-K FY2025) · as of 2025
Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →
What we don’t know
3 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
- ?
How much of Salesforce's revenue and headcount is actually based in the EU versus the US and rest of world?
Would refine the operations score; current EU figures are partial (Ireland disclosed, EU-wide totals not broken out).
- ?
What share of EU customers actually use the Hyperforce EU Operating Zone versus default global regions?
Determines whether EU data residency is the norm or an opt-in minority, affecting the real-world infra exposure.
- ?
Has any US CLOUD Act / FISA request ever reached EU-resident Salesforce customer data?
Would move infra confidence; the legal exposure is established but real-world enforcement against EU OZ data is undocumented.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
The EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework targets cloud service providers; applying it to a SaaS/CRM vendor like Salesforce is an analogous mapping for orientation, not a certification or formal SEAL assessment.
Strategic
US-controlled vendor with US institutional ownership; strategic direction set from San Francisco, not the EU.
Legal & jurisdictional
Delaware-incorporated US parent subject to CLOUD Act and FISA; EU entities are subsidiaries without parent immunity.
Data & AI
Hyperforce EU Operating Zone offers genuine EU data residency, but on US hyperscalers under a US parent.
Operational
Real EU operations — Dublin EMEA HQ, 2,500+ Irish staff, EU-based support for the EU OZ.
Supply chain
Core infrastructure depends on US hyperscalers (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure); no EU-sovereign cloud underpinning.
Technological
Platform, code and IP controlled by the US parent; EU has no independent technological control.
Security & compliance
Holds EU certifications and offers GDPR/SCC tooling, but compliance does not remove US legal reach.
Environmental sustainability
Dublin Salesforce Tower is LEED Platinum on 100% renewable energy; broader EU-specific footprint not assessed here.
EU alternatives
EU-headquartered and EU-incorporated CRM/CX alternative, but its cloud also leans on US hyperscalers in places — strong on control, weaker on infra.
Belgium-headquartered European CRM vendor with EU data hosting; a genuinely EU-controlled CRM option for SMB/mid-market.
Belgium-based open-source business suite with CRM; EU-controlled and self-hostable, strong on sovereignty for those who self-host.
How the method works
Methodology v2 (provisional): the score is the midpoint of two axes — Control (who owns and governs the company) and Data (where your data lives and who can reach it). Each axis is scored only on verified evidence; unknowns reduce confidence, never the score. Every input below is sourced; the weights and judgments are open to challenge.
Spotted an error? Every claim is sourced — challenge it and we correct the record.
- 2026-06-12 — Initial golden profile, authored from primary sources (human + AI review).
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Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology