IBM shares plummet 13.2% to $223.35, pushing year-to-date losses past 24%, after Anthropic's Claude Code tool threatens IBM's lucrative COBOL modernization business by automating complex legacy code analysis that previously took human analysts months to complete.
As veteran COBOL developers retire and billions of lines of legacy code power 95% of US ATM transactions, AI tools like Claude Code are now automating the most costly and complex phases of modernization, offering organizations a practical, incremental path forward before a critical skills gap becomes a full-blown crisis.
Nearly three-quarters of CIOs regret major AI vendor decisions from the past 18 months and fear job loss if they cannot prove AI returns within two years, even as 60% of CFOs plan to boost AI spending by 10% or more in 2026 despite mounting pressure for measurable business gains.
Goldman Sachs partners with Anthropic to deploy Claude AI agents for automating accounting, trading reconciliation, and client onboarding, with embedded engineers building autonomous systems that executives expect will accelerate processes and limit future hiring rather than trigger immediate layoffs.
Software stocks crash as Anthropic unveils Claude Cowork, a powerful AI assistant that automates file management and document drafting across multiple industries, sending Thomson Reuters down 15.83% and Legalzoom plummeting 19.68% amid fears that AI automation will devastate traditional software subscription models.
Amazon stock crashes 8% as the tech giant announces a staggering $200 billion AI spending plan for 2026, far exceeding analyst expectations of $146.6 billion, despite beating revenue forecasts and AWS posting its fastest growth in over three years at 24%.
Google's Gemini AI chatbot surges to 750 million monthly users while launching its most advanced Gemini 3 model and a cheaper $7.99 subscription plan, helping propel parent company Alphabet past the historic $400 billion annual revenue milestone for the first time.
Elon Musk confirms SpaceX merges with xAI to create a massive $1.25 trillion company combining artificial intelligence, rockets, and space-based computing, while Tesla stock plunges 3.8% amid analyst predictions that the electric vehicle maker could join the mega-merger within 12-18 months.
Verata launches relationship intelligence platform mapping 30+ million professional connections to help private equity firms leverage warm introductions for deal sourcing, already attracting 3 of the top 10 mega funds.
Oracle teeters on junk bond status after borrowing heavily for $50 billion AI infrastructure spending to serve unprofitable OpenAI, while CoreWeave drowns in $15 billion debt and multiple AI companies trade at extreme valuations despite minimal revenue, signaling dangerous cracks in the tech sector's AI spending bubble.