Anthropic's AI has caused a stock collapse in a new sector of software developers

Shares of cybersecurity companies fell sharply on Feb. 20 after startup Anthropic unveiled a new security feature in its Claude artificial intelligence model. Anthropic said the new tool "scans codebases for vulnerabilities and offers point program patches for human review." For now, the update is available in limited research mode.

CrowdStrike shares were among the leaders of the fall: they lost 8%. Cloudflare shares fell by 8.1%, Zscaler - by 5.5%, SailPoint - by 9.4%, Okta - by 9.2%. The Global X Cybersecurity ETF fell 4.9% and closed at its lowest level since November 2023, Bloomberg notes.

The decline in shares of cybersecurity service providers has become a new example of a sell-off in the software sector amid fears of increased competition from companies initially focused on AI, Bloomberg writes. Last week, securities of companies developing software for accountants and designers fell under this "roller". Shares of financial consultants and transportation and logistics companies were also getting cheaper, as investors feared that AI could replace the providers of these services. Market anxiety has been building for weeks. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF has declined more than 23% since the beginning of the year and is headed for its biggest quarterly drop since the 2008 financial crisis, Bloomberg writes.

Much of the sell-off is due to the release of new AI tools from Anthropic, OpenAI and Alphabet. Investors fear that vibe coding - using AI to write program code - will allow users to create their own applications, reducing demand for traditional products and putting pressure on companies' growth rates, margins and liquidity.

High volatility in the sector shows how quickly companies can be counted among potential "AI losers," Bloomberg emphasizes. For example, the agency named Cloudflare among the proxies for Anthropic's growing importance: in late January, its shares rose sharply on reports that it was expanding its use of the Claude-powered AI assistant.

"There continues to be a steady selloff in software, and today it was the security sector that got a mini-flash crash because of one headline," Triple D Trading chief trader Dennis Dick told Bloomberg. - It's the kind of market that scares investors: securities move steadily downward at the slightest hint of technological dislocation. The caution seems rational - not long ago they were saying the decline in software was excessive, but it continues."

Jefferies analyst Joseph Gallo expects cybersecurity to be the net beneficiary of AI development in the long term, but "negative headlines are likely to intensify until clarity emerges and the trend reverses around AI defense," Bloomberg quotes him as saying. Gallo notes that the broader effect of Anthropic's announcement is that AI vendors "will be announcing more products and competing for additional cybersecurity budgets."

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor