Ibm Stock tumbles as Anthropic says Claude Code can modernize COBOL
Shares of International Business Machines collapsed on Feb. 23 after Anthropic said its Claude Code tool could be used to modernize COBOL, a move that sent ibm stock down sharply and reverberated across software and cybersecurity names.
Ibm Stock fall: 13. 2% slide and the biggest daily drop since October 18, 2000
IBM shares sank 13. 2% on Monday, marking the steepest daily drop for the company in more than 25 years and the biggest single-day decline since October 18, 2000. The scale of the sell-off came the same day Anthropic publicized claims about Claude Code and its potential to affect systems that run on IBM mainframes.
Anthropic’s Claude Code: blog post says COBOL modernization can shrink timelines
Anthropic said in a blog post on Monday that its Claude Code tool could be used to modernize a programming language run on IBM systems. The post argued that "Modernizing a COBOL system once required armies of consultants spending years mapping workflows. Tools like Claude Code can automate the exploration and analysis phases that consume most of the effort in COBOL modernization. " It added: "With AI, teams can modernize their COBOL codebase in quarters instead of years. "
COBOL’s footprint and potential stakes for banking, insurance and government systems
COBOL is a programming language widely used on IBM mainframes across banking, insurance and government systems, and Anthropic’s claim about automating modernization touched those legacy functions directly. The blog post framed Claude Code as able to speed analysis and exploration phases that historically demanded large consultant teams and long project schedules.
Wider market reaction: software stocks battered and cybersecurity names slump
Software stocks have been battered in recent months by market fears around the growing capabilities of AI tools, an anxiety that intensified after the launch of plug-ins from Anthropic's large language model Claude, which has been seen as the startup's push to become an application layer. On Monday, shares of cybersecurity companies including CrowdStrike and Datadog also slumped as investors weighed the potential impact of Anthropic's new security tool on the industry.
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