By James Brumley
Publication Date: 2026-02-27 21:32:00
The market’s knee-jerk reaction makes enough superficial sense. Anthropic’s AI-powered computer-coding platform Claude can easily help modernize complicated programs written in COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language), seemingly posing a threat to IBM‘s (IBM 0.74%) biggest business. The technology giant’s mainframes still utilize the aging programming language, after all.
That’s why IBM’s share price tumbled more than 12% on Monday in response to Anthropic’s blog post — not only could this option take a bite out of IBM’s breadwinning software and consulting business, but it also conceivably sets the stage for a more sweeping transition away from IBM’s mainframes that have worked so well with COBOL for so long.
The market’s response, however, seems to be ignoring a handful of critical details that might have prompted Monday’s sellers to rethink their decision. Here are the three most important of these details.
Image source: Getty Images.
