

Wall Street has fallen out of love with software stocks
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Software companies’ pitch to investors could use an upgrade. Once a favorite of Wall Street, software stocks have been sliding lately, with investors increasingly concerned about how the sector could be upended by their newest crush: artificial-intelligence companies.
Rocked by the emergence of “vibe coding"—the practice of using AI tools to quickly produce apps and websites—software heavyweights Salesforce, Adobe and ServiceNow are all down at least 30% since the start of last year. An S&P index of small and midsize software stocks is also down more than 20% over that period, with declines accelerating this month after the introduction of Anthropic’s Claude Code, an AI tool that industry insiders have said can dramatically shrink the time it takes to build even complex software. At a time when many investors are wondering if the AI investment boom itself might be a bubble, software’s slump is a reminder of how quickly fortunes can change on Wall Street.
“The narrative has really shifted," said Rishi Jaluria, a software analyst at RBC Capital Markets. Investors, he said, have gone from initially thinking that software companies could benefit from AI to asking, “Is AI just the death of software?" Investors will gain insight into the overall state of the tech sector in the coming week, with Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft set to report earnings. The Federal Reserve will also meet, though it isn’t expected to change interest rates.
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