Flooring Guide by Cinvex JAKARTA – Shares of multinational technology company International Business Machines (IBM) experienced a sharp decline in value after Anthropic released Claude Code. This 13.2% drop marked the steepest daily correction for the company in over 25 years.
At its core, the market is apprehensive that one of IBM’s most stable “cash cows”—the modernization of COBOL systems—could be significantly eroded if Claude Code makes such transformations much faster and more affordable.
COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) is an aged programming language specifically designed for business applications, particularly those involving finance and large-scale data administration.
According to market movement data, this recent plunge in IBM’s stock price represents its largest single-day decline since October 18, 2000. The massive sell-off directly coincided with Anthropic’s publication of claims regarding Claude Code’s capabilities to influence IBM’s mainframe systems.
In its official blog post, Anthropic stated that its Claude Code tool is capable of modernizing the COBOL programming language that operates on IBM systems. This innovative technology is touted to automate the exploration and analysis phases, which have historically been the most challenging aspects of system updates.
“Modernizing COBOL systems used to demand an army of consultants spending years mapping workflows,” Anthropic’s management highlighted in their official blog post, as quoted on Tuesday (February 24, 2026).
Previous industry efforts to train new experts have reportedly fallen short of market demand. This shortfall has traditionally rendered the migration process from COBOL a high-risk initiative requiring substantial operational costs.
“With AI, teams can modernize their COBOL codebase in a matter of quarters, not years,” Anthropic’s management asserted in their written report.
This artificial intelligence is described as possessing the autonomous capability to assess system components that are safe for migration. Claude Code will meticulously document areas with technical debt before proceeding to the migration phase, thereby mitigating unforeseen technical obstacles.
The challenge posed by legacy systems is not a new discourse within the global technical community. IBM itself, approximately three years ago, proposed utilizing AI to rewrite COBOL code into Java through its watsonx Code Assistant for Z service, as reported by The Register.
Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of Infosys, also previously offered his perspective on the urgency of modernizing legacy systems. According to Nilekani, the advent of AI has made the cost of rewriting older applications significantly more accessible for companies.
This wave of negative sentiment did not solely impact IBM; it also spread to shares across the software and cybersecurity sectors. Cybersecurity stocks, for instance, had previously plummeted after Anthropic launched Claude Code Security, an AI-powered security system.
Investors are reportedly growing apprehensive about the expanding capabilities of AI tools, which could potentially threaten the business models of existing application layers. Market participants are currently evaluating the long-term ramifications of Anthropic’s new security tool on the global software industry’s competitive landscape.
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