New York, Feb 23, 2026, 19:26 EST — After-hours
- IBM shares dropped after hours as Anthropic rolled out a tool designed to update COBOL code.
- Investors zeroed in on the question of AI automation—and whether it might squeeze fees linked to legacy system upgrades.
- Traders are watching for company statements, plus the next round of big tech earnings reports.
IBM shares slid roughly 13% to $223.35 in late trading Monday, following news that Anthropic, the AI startup, introduced a tool targeting faster COBOL software modernization. Earlier, the stock changed hands between $255.77 and $221.00, with volume hitting about 19.5 million shares.
The market’s AI narrative has turned, making this selloff significant. Now, investors aren’t simply chasing AI-driven growth—they’re also pulling back from companies at risk of automation.
IBM falls into that second category—somewhat uncomfortably. The company’s business centers on steady, legacy enterprise systems work, exactly the sort of slow-moving projects now in the crosshairs of new code-writing tools.
Anthropic’s Claude Code is pitching automation for the “discovery” slog in legacy upgrades—meaning, it parses through old code to figure out what’s actually happening before developers jump in to update it. The company claims its tool can drag COBOL systems into the present “in quarters instead of years.” COBOL, still holding up the guts of U.S. banking, air travel, and government IT, processes about 95% of American ATM transactions, according to Anthropic. Shares of consulting majors Accenture and Cognizant each dropped roughly 6% on the day, per Investing.com. Investing.com
The issue for IBM boils down to this: fewer people on staff translates directly into a drop in billable hours. Clients eager to speed up rewrites and migrations are likely to push for lower prices, and they might cut back on the number of external teams they hire.
Wall Street took a hit, with the Dow dropping 1.66%, the S&P 500 off 1.04%, and the Nasdaq down 1.13%. Investors wrestled with tariff jitters and another AI scare, according to Reuters. “Sell first, assess later,” summed up Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, describing how trading has moved on AI headlines. Reuters
Some of the selling pressure is automatic. Once investors begin to tag software and services as possible “AI losers,” companies tied closely to enterprise spending and consulting get trimmed from portfolios first.
IBM hasn’t let up on pushing its growth story. For the fourth quarter, software revenue climbed to $9.0 billion, a 14% gain. Infrastructure sales jumped 21%, thanks in large part to a 67% spike from IBM Z mainframes. CEO Arvind Krishna said the firm’s generative AI “book of business” now exceeds $12.5 billion. IBM Newsroom
Still, just because tools like Claude Code exist doesn’t mean they’re speeding up real-world buying decisions—at least, not yet. Major COBOL migrations remain bogged down by operational risks, regulatory scrutiny, and lengthy testing phases. Even if AI handles the initial work, people stick around to check the results.
IBM’s on the docket at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, set for March 3, with its first-quarter earnings penciled in for April 22, according to the company’s preliminary schedule.
