anthropic

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IBM Analysis: Anthropic's COBOL Bombshell Erases $30 Billion — Opportunity or the Beginning of the End?

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) is in the throes of its worst single-day selloff in over two decades. On February 24, 2026, shares plunged 13.1% to $223.35 after AI startup Anthropic announced that its Claude Code tool can analyze, document, and modernize legacy COBOL codebases — the decades-old programming language that still underpins much of IBM's enterprise consulting and infrastructure business. The move wiped roughly $30 billion from IBM's market capitalization in a single session, sending the stock to $223.35 from a previous close of $257.16. The panic is not without context. IBM had been on a remarkable run prior to this shock, climbing to a 52-week high of $324.90 on the strength of its own AI narrative — watsonx, hybrid cloud growth, and a string of solid quarterly earnings that saw full-year 2025 revenue reach $67.5 billion with $11.6 billion in free cash flow. The company had positioned itself as a primary enterprise AI beneficiary, not a casualty. Yet Anthropic's demonstration that AI can compress legacy modernization timelines from months to hours has forced investors to reconsider whether IBM's most durable competitive moat — its grip on mission-critical legacy infrastructure — may be far more vulnerable than previously assumed. At $223.35, IBM now trades at roughly 20x trailing earnings, carries a 3.0% dividend yield, and sits 31% below its 52-week high. The question facing investors is clear: is this a generational buying opportunity in a $209 billion enterprise technology franchise, or an early warning that AI disruption is coming for Big Blue's core revenue streams faster than anyone expected?

February 24, 2026

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Developing: Pentagon and Anthropic Clash Over Military AI Guardrails as Defense Secretary Hegseth Meets CEO Amodei

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met Tuesday morning with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the Pentagon in a high-stakes showdown over whether the artificial intelligence company will be permitted to maintain its own ethical guardrails on how the U.S. military uses its technology. The meeting comes after weeks of escalating tension between the Department of Defense — now rebranded as the Department of War — and the AI startup, which holds a contract worth up to $200 million and is the only frontier AI company to have deployed models on classified military networks. At the heart of the dispute is a fundamental question that extends far beyond any single contract: Who gets to decide the ethical boundaries of AI in warfare — the companies that build the technology, or the government that wields it? Anthropic has insisted its Claude AI systems must not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance of American citizens. The Pentagon has demanded the right to use all AI tools for "any lawful use" without company-imposed restrictions. The confrontation arrives at a moment when Anthropic is simultaneously shaking multiple industries. In just the past week, the company's new AI tools have triggered massive sell-offs in cybersecurity and legacy software stocks, while its accusations of intellectual property theft by Chinese AI firms have added a geopolitical dimension to its already outsized influence. With a valuation of $380 billion following a $30 billion funding round earlier this month, Anthropic finds itself at the center of nearly every major AI debate in 2026.

February 24, 2026