On Monday, shares of International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM) declined 13.18% in the regular session to $223.35 and gained 0.94% in after-hours trading. The stock was seen trending overnight.
The stock became the latest perceived victim of rapidly advancing AI technology.
AI Tool Targets COBOL Modernization
The move followed comments from Anthropic that its Claude Code tool can help companies modernize legacy systems built on COBOL.
Common Business-Oriented Language, or COBOL, is a programming language widely used in banking, government and large-scale transaction processing.
IBM has long generated revenue from mainframe systems and consulting services tied to maintaining and upgrading those environments.
Developed in the late 1950s, it still underpins a vast share of financial infrastructure. “COBOL is everywhere. It handles an estimated 95% of ATM transactions in the U.S.,” Anthropic wrote in a blog post.
However, maintaining and rewriting those systems has been costly and time-consuming.
Investors Fear AI Could Pressure IBM’s Core Business
Anthropic said Claude Code can map dependencies, document workflows and identify risks across massive codebases — tasks that once required months of manual analysis.
The company argued that AI can make legacy modernization faster and more cost-effective.
Ohanian Reacts To Claude Code
Technology investor Alexis Ohanian weighed in on social media, suggesting AI is accelerating software development to the point where building is no longer the bottleneck — vision and execution are.
“Claude just commoditized the act of building software — now it’s not eating the world, it’s swallowing it whole,” Ohanian wrote.
IBM Earnings Strong, Stock Slides 14% Year Over Year
Last month, IBM reported fourth-quarter revenue of $19.69 billion, surpassing the consensus estimate of $19.23 billion, according to Benzinga Pro.
The company also reported adjusted earnings of $4.52 per share, exceeding analysts’ expectations of $4.32 per share.
In the past 12 months, IBM shares have been down 14.71%, whereas in the past five years, it has gained 96.61%, according to Benzinga Pro.
The company currently has a market capitalization of $208.77 billion.
IBM stock shows a negative price trend across the short, medium and long term, along with a weak value rating.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo: nitpicker / Shutterstock
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