Tech stocks face the "Anthropic Effect" directly... IBM and DoorDash stock prices decline

Several software companies, including IBM and DoorDash, saw their stock prices decline again due to a sharp drop in technology stocks. This sell-off is the latest in a series of IT industry declines following the release of Anthropic PBC’s Claude Workspace plugin on January 30. The plugin includes prompts, datasets, and scripts for various uses such as sales, marketing, and project management. This caused shares of enterprise software companies focused on similar functions to fall.

Shortly after the release of such plugins, Anthropic announced its Claude Code Security tool, capable of scanning application code for vulnerabilities. On the same day, cybersecurity providers like CrowdStrike and Cloudflare also experienced stock declines.

One of the reasons for this sell-off was an early morning article posted on Anthropic’s official blog about Claude’s code modernization features. The article described an AI service capable of converting applications written in legacy programming languages like COBOL into modern technologies. Due to the prevalence of COBOL applications running on mainframes, IBM, the world’s largest mainframe supplier, saw its stock drop 13% that day. Major tech service providers like Accenture and Capgemini also fell 6% and 6.6%, respectively. These companies offer COBOL modernization services, and investors are concerned that their businesses may be threatened by AI technology.

Meanwhile, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of most tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, countries paused trade discussions over the weekend. Subsequently, President Trump announced plans to impose a 10% tariff on all imported goods, later raised to 15%. The European Union and India responded with countermeasures, suspending trade negotiation talks with the U.S.

Additionally, a lesser-known research firm called Citrini Research published a blog post sharing potential scenarios about the impact of AI markets. They proposed a future scenario where “AI capability improvements lead to workforce reductions and increased white-collar unemployment,” which also affected the market, causing DoorDash’s stock to fall 6.6%, with related companies like Visa and American Express also closing lower.

On that day, the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite all declined by more than 1%.