On Feb. 3, the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 1.4 percent and the S&P 500 ended down 0.8 percent.

The Financial Times reported that the moves reflected concerns that AI company Anthropic could threaten the existing software industry by offering tools to automate legal work through its Claude Cowork platform.

Anthropic unveiled AI productivity features that support contract review, regulatory compliance workflows and automated legal briefings. The view also spread that this could expand into high value-added industries such as consulting and financial services, threatening the existing software industry.

Information analytics and legal data platform companies were hit particularly hard. Gartner fell 21 percent and S&P Global dropped 11 percent. Intuit and Equifax fell by more than 10 percent, while Moody's slid 9 percent and FactSet dropped 11 percent. A JPMorgan index tracking software stocks fell 7 percent, widening its decline since the start of the year to 18 percent. Big Tech also fell, including Nvidia down 2.8 percent, Microsoft down 2.9 percent and Oracle down 3.4 percent.

Mike O'Rourke (마이크 오루어크) of Jones Trading said, "If AI replaces software customers that require computing power,

hyperscalers will inevitably be hit as well."

Private equity was also shaken. Shares of Ares Management, KKR and Apollo, which have focused on software investment in recent years, fell about 4.8 to 10 percent each. Jeremy Abelson (제러미 아벨슨) of Irving Investors said, "With position reductions over AI risk already near their limits, this Anthropic announcement shook the market in an instant."

Transport and consumer staples, which are relatively free from AI penetration, ended higher on the day.