Software stocks rebound as Anthropic announces new partnerships

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Software stocks made a comeback on Tuesday after Anthropic hosted its enterprise agents event, where it revealed new partnerships, quelling some investor fears that the sector could be displaced by artificial intelligence.

The AI startup launched new updates to Claude Cowork that allow companies to integrate the productivity tool into a host of enterprise apps, such as Salesforce-owned Slack, Intuit, Docusign, LegalZoom, FactSet and Google’s Gmail.

Organizations can also deploy customizable plugins across sectors like financial analysis, engineering and human resources, Anthropic said.

Salesforce, Docusign and LegalZoom shares jumped 4% following the Anthropic announcement. Thomson Reuters’ stock surged more than 11% and FactSet shares rose 6%.

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Salesforce, Docusign and Thomson Reuters one-day stock chart.

Analysts at Wedbush Securities said in a Tuesday research note that Anthropic’s event showed the competition risk to software from AI is “overblown.”

They argued that models aren’t capable of replacing entire workflows that remain “deeply embedded” in software infrastructure.

“The reality is that these new AI tools will not rip and replace existing software ecosystems and data environments with these AI tools only as useful as the data it can reach,” the analysts wrote.

Anthropic’s recent product rollouts have sent software and cybersecurity stocks tumbling in recent weeks as investors digested the looming threat of AI tools to those business models.

Many of those stocks climbed higher on Tuesday, including CrowdStrike and Okta, which rose about 1%. Zscaler, Tenable and SentinelOne jumped about 4% each, while Cloudflare was up more than 3%.

IBM shares sold off heavily on Monday after Anthropic touted a tool that could automate aspects of a programming language run on IBM’s computers. IBM’s stock rebounded Tuesday, climbing 3%.

— CNBC’s Ashley Capoot and Kate Rooney contributed reporting to this story.

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