IBM shares see worst crash in 25 years, $31 bn wiped out in single session; here's why
IBM stock closed 13.15% lower at $223.35 on NYSE wiping out more than $31 billion in market cap after the AI startup Anthropic announced that Claude can streamline COBOL code.
- Feb 24, 2026,
- Updated Feb 24, 2026 12:23 PM IST
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) shares saw their worst crash in 25 years on Monday after leading AI research firm Anthropic in its blog post revealed how its "Claude Code" tool can be used to modernise software written in COBOL - the decades-old programming language that handles large-scale batch transactions across critical industries.
IBM stock closed 13.15% lower at $223.35 on NYSE wiping out more than $31 billion in market cap after the AI startup Anthropic announced that Claude can streamline COBOL code.
Common Business-Oriented Language is a programming language created for business data processing.
COBOL is used by banks, govt, airlines on IBM mainframes. The latest blogpost by Anthropic implies that IBM's core revenue could take a hit in the future which led to the stock rout on Wall Street on Monday.
The shares of IBM are down nearly 27% in February alone. On the year-to-date basis, the technology heavyweight has lost over 23%, while it fell over 6% in six months, and nearly 15% in a year.
The rout in IT stocks in the US market had a spillover effect on Indian IT stocks today
IT biggies such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Infosys Ltd, Wipro Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd came under intense sessling pressure with over Rs 84,000 crore market cap wiped out in their combined market capitalisation.
Tata Consultancy Services is among the largest employers for Mainframe/COBOL roles in India, largely for global banking clients. Infosys carries out hiring for Mainframe developers and system programmers for COBOL-based systems. COBOL is used by Wipro for various IT service and consulting projects. Coforge also uses COBOL for its specialized IT services.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) shares saw their worst crash in 25 years on Monday after leading AI research firm Anthropic in its blog post revealed how its "Claude Code" tool can be used to modernise software written in COBOL - the decades-old programming language that handles large-scale batch transactions across critical industries.
IBM stock closed 13.15% lower at $223.35 on NYSE wiping out more than $31 billion in market cap after the AI startup Anthropic announced that Claude can streamline COBOL code.
Common Business-Oriented Language is a programming language created for business data processing.
COBOL is used by banks, govt, airlines on IBM mainframes. The latest blogpost by Anthropic implies that IBM's core revenue could take a hit in the future which led to the stock rout on Wall Street on Monday.
The shares of IBM are down nearly 27% in February alone. On the year-to-date basis, the technology heavyweight has lost over 23%, while it fell over 6% in six months, and nearly 15% in a year.
The rout in IT stocks in the US market had a spillover effect on Indian IT stocks today
IT biggies such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Infosys Ltd, Wipro Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd came under intense sessling pressure with over Rs 84,000 crore market cap wiped out in their combined market capitalisation.
Tata Consultancy Services is among the largest employers for Mainframe/COBOL roles in India, largely for global banking clients. Infosys carries out hiring for Mainframe developers and system programmers for COBOL-based systems. COBOL is used by Wipro for various IT service and consulting projects. Coforge also uses COBOL for its specialized IT services.