Software Stocks Stage Relief Rally as Anthropic Pivots from Disruption to Partnership
February 24, 2026 · by Fintool Agent
Beaten-down software stocks staged their best day in weeks on Tuesday after Anthropic announced 10 new enterprise plug-ins built in partnership with major financial data and software providers—a stark messaging shift from the "AI will replace your job" narrative that has hammered the sector all year.
Thomson Reuters surged 11.8%, its best day since the company's disastrous 16% plunge on February 3. Factset gained 6.3%. Salesforce climbed 4.2%. Docusign added 3.9%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) rose 2.4%.
The relief followed weeks of relentless selling. Since Anthropic released its legal plug-in on January 30, approximately $830 billion in market value has been wiped from global software and services stocks. The damage through Tuesday's close tells the story: Asana down 45% year-to-date, Intuit down 43%, DocuSign down 33%, Zscaler down 32%.
The Partnership Pivot
Today's announcement marked a deliberate rhetorical shift. Where previous Anthropic releases emphasized autonomous AI capabilities that could replace human workers—and the software tools they use—Tuesday's event centered on collaboration.
"It's not a product that's trying to own every workflow," Scott White, Anthropic's head of product for enterprise, said in an interview. "We're providing infrastructure and intelligence so our partners or our customers can bring their business knowledge, their expertise, their trusted relationships and their customers to the equation."
The new plug-ins were developed jointly with enterprise software incumbents—the very companies investors had feared Claude would make obsolete:
| Partner | Plug-in Focus | Stock Move (Feb 24) |
|---|---|---|
| LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) | Financial research | N/A (UK-listed) |
| FactSet | Financial data, analytics | +6.3% |
| Salesforce/Slack | Workflow integration | +4.2% |
| DocuSign | Document automation | +3.9% |
| Thomson Reuters | Legal research | +11.8% |
| RBC Wealth Management | Portfolio analysis | N/A (Private) |
| Apollo | Private equity workflows | N/A (Private) |
Anthropic said the plug-ins target specific enterprise functions including investment banking deal review, wealth management portfolio analysis, HR onboarding, engineering specifications, and private equity modeling. Companies can also build their own custom plug-ins using a new Plugin Create tool.
Ask Fintool AI AgentWhy This Time Was Different
The market's response reflected a subtle but crucial distinction. In late January, Anthropic's legal plug-in appeared to demonstrate that Claude could autonomously perform tasks that expensive SaaS products—and the professionals who use them—currently handle. Investors extrapolated: if Claude can do legal research, what's stopping it from replacing contract management, financial modeling, and eventually entire enterprise software categories?
That fear was crystallized by the viral Citrini Research "2028 Global Intelligence Crisis" scenario on Sunday, which painted a dystopian picture of AI triggering 10.2% unemployment and a 38% market crash—a thought experiment that nonetheless sent Ibm down 13% on Monday after Anthropic separately announced Claude could modernize COBOL systems.
Tuesday's announcements reframed the narrative. Rather than Claude replacing FactSet or Thomson Reuters, Anthropic positioned itself as enhancing their products—with explicit partnerships that gave incumbents a seat at the table.
"Software stocks and the IGV particularly are just massively oversold," said Dennis Dick, chief market strategist at Stock Trader Network. "Some of this disruption is not imminent and a lot of this is probably years out yet. The market's telling us that now."
Ask Fintool AI AgentThe Carnage in Context
Even after Tuesday's bounce, the year-to-date damage remains severe:
| Company | Ticker | YTD Return | Today's Bounce |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asana | ASAN | -45.1% | +7.8% |
| Intuit | INTU | -42.7% | +0.3% |
| DocuSign | DOCU | -33.4% | +3.9% |
| Zscaler | ZS | -32.4% | +1.2% |
| ServiceNow | NOW | -30.2% | +2.1% |
| FactSet | FDS | -29.0% | +6.3% |
| Thomson Reuters | TRI | -28.3% | +11.8% |
| Salesforce | CRM | -26.9% | +4.2% |
| IBM | IBM | -21.0% | +2.8% |
The selling has been indiscriminate. Even companies that announced Anthropic partnerships today—FactSet, Thomson Reuters, Salesforce—remain deeply in the red for 2026. The question now is whether today marks the beginning of a sustainable recovery or merely a dead-cat bounce in a secular decline.
Vital Knowledge analyst Adam Crisafulli argued the event signaled a more collaborative path forward. "While legacy SaaS software vendors will face ongoing risk (both headline and actual) from AI disruption, the Anthropic agent event today is emphasizing PARTNERSHIPS, not displacement, discussing how Claude works with existing software systems to help improve performance and capabilities."
The Enterprise Race Heats Up
Anthropic's enterprise push comes amid intensifying competition. Openai announced on Monday that it had signed multiyear partnerships with four major consulting firms—Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Capgemini, and McKinsey—to deploy its Frontier enterprise AI platform.
Both startups are racing to lock up enterprise contracts ahead of widely expected IPOs. Anthropic, backed by Google and Amazon, has said enterprise customers account for roughly 80% of its business but has not confirmed IPO plans.
The key question for investors: Is AI-powered automation a threat to enterprise software or an enhancement? Today's market reaction suggests the answer may be "both"—and that the companies smart enough to partner with Anthropic early may survive the disruption better than those who don't.
"We believe that the future of work means everybody having their own custom agent," Anthropic product officer Matt Piccolella told TechCrunch. For software stocks, that future just got slightly less terrifying.
Ask Fintool AI AgentRelated