IBM Stock Falls After Anthropic Claude COBOL Update
IBM Stock Falls after Anthropic updated Claude to target COBOL modernization, prompting a roughly 10%-13% share drop and software-sector selling.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Anthropic updated Claude to modernize COBOL, lowering time and cost to understand legacy code.
- IBM shares fell roughly 10%-13% following the announcement, sparking losses across the software sector.
- Reports linked the move to Anthropic's blog with timing noted at 14:21 ET.
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IBM (IBM) shares fell sharply on Feb. 23, 2026, after Anthropic announced an AI update it said could modernize COBOL systems, triggering losses across the software sector and spotlighting vendors tied to legacy-code work.
Market Reaction and Anthropic Update
IBM shares declined roughly 10%–13% following Anthropic’s announcement of an update to its Claude AI model targeting COBOL systems. The move prompted losses across software stocks as investors assessed the competitive impact of cheaper, AI-driven legacy modernization tools. Reports linking the announcement to the stock reaction emerged at 14:21 ET. IBM and the Securities and Exchange Commission did not issue any response or guidance in the 72 hours after the announcement.
Anthropic published a blog post describing the update as a tool that reduces the time and cost of understanding and updating legacy COBOL code. It identifies risks in COBOL systems that would take human analysts months to find, changing the economics where analysis previously cost more than rewriting.
COBOL supports an estimated 95% of U.S. ATM transactions, with hundreds of billions of lines running in production across finance, airlines, and government. IBM provides business-data services involving COBOL, placing it among vendors potentially exposed to competition from tools that lower the cost and time of legacy modernization. Anthropic did not provide financial projections related to the update.
