New York, Feb 6, 2026, 17:43 EST — After-hours
- ServiceNow slipped, weighed down by lingering volatility across software stocks.
- Investors continued to debate if AI boosts subscription software—or ends up upending it.
- Investors now eye a slate of tech executives set to appear at upcoming conferences.
ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW.N) dropped 1.8% to $100.74 Friday, then held steady in after-hours trading. The stock moved between $99.02 and $105.54 during the session. Roughly 34.7 million shares traded hands.
ServiceNow isn’t escaping the “software-mageddon” that’s hammering cloud and SaaS stocks — that is, online subscription software — as investors increasingly draw a line between AI winners and losers. Over the past week, the S&P 500 Software & Services index slid roughly 13%; since peaking in late October, it’s lost about 25%, erasing more than $800 billion in value. “Perhaps this is an overreaction, but the threat is real,” Ocean Park Asset Management CIO James St. Aubin said. 1
The split in the AI sector is getting sharper. Shares of ServiceNow are off 12% this week, Salesforce down 9%. Hardware stocks, especially those linked to data-center expansion, are holding up better as investors shift focus. Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo, described the divergence as “not a vote against AI,” but more a question of who stands to enable the shift and who might get left behind. 2
Friday saw a sharp rebound for U.S. stocks. The Dow broke through the 50,000 mark for the first time, while the S&P 500 climbed 2% as Nvidia surged almost 8%. Software names managed to recover as well: the S&P 500 software and services index gained 2.4%, halting a seven-day slide. Still, the sector ended up with its worst week since March 2020. 3
No real signs of bargain hunters. ServiceNow gave up 7.6% Thursday, while the S&P 500 software and services index dropped 4.6% and is now down about $1 trillion in value since Jan. 28. The index sits roughly 21% under its 200-day moving average—a key long-term marker. Ben Snider, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, said near-term earnings might hold up, but they’re “insufficient to disprove the long-term downside risk.” 4
Late last month, ServiceNow projected its fiscal 2026 subscription revenue would land between $15.53 billion and $15.57 billion. The company also cleared a fresh $5 billion for buybacks. ServiceNow is pushing AI deeper into its platform, linking up with Anthropic—the Claude chatbot developer—and OpenAI, the group behind ChatGPT, as it chases the next wave of autonomous AI “agents” that handle tasks with minimal human involvement. 5
According to a filing, vice chairman Nicholas Tzitzon picked up 10,004 performance-based restricted stock units on Feb. 3. He’ll need to stick around until Feb. 7 for the award to vest. The document notes this was the first of two tranches linked to performance targets for the 2024–2025 period. 6
Coming up: ServiceNow’s Lou Fiorello, group VP and general manager for risk and security products, will speak on a Securing AI panel at the Bernstein TMT Forum on Feb. 25. CEO Bill McDermott is slated for a fireside chat at the Morgan Stanley TMT Conference on March 4. 7
