NOW, SNOW, ZS, INTU Stocks Plummet — What's The Anthropic Connection With Software Selloffs?

• According to CNBC, Ben Reitzes of Melius Research reportedly told investors in a note that he expects automation to impact software companies across the board, including the Magnificent Seven.
• Meanwhile, John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, told CNBC that he would be keeping software exposure in the portfolios he manages at a low level until signs of stabilizing or bottoming sentiment were visible. 
• Reitzes instead believes that the clear beneficiaries of AI could continue to be in hardware, like in semiconductors.

Shares of multiple Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) stocks took a beating down on Thursday, including shares of ServiceNow Inc. (NOW), Snowflake Inc. (SNOW), Zscaler Inc. (Z), and Intuit Inc. (INTU), which declined sharply.

Analysts believe the rout is related to Anthropic’s $30 billion revenue run rate announcement, dethroning OpenAI on this key metric, as well as latest updates on its agentic AI tools, including Claude Managed Agents. The company said that its updates would reduce time taken for developers to build their own agents, reviving concerns for software stocks.

“That Anthropic update was staggering,” Ben Reitzes, head of technology research at Melius Research, reportedly told investors in a note, referring to the revenue run rate.

According to CNBC, Reitzes said in the note that he expects automation to impact software companies across the board, including members of the Magnificent Seven. “SaaS is to be avoided,” Reitzes reportedly told CNBC.

NOW stock was down nearly 8% at the time of writing, while SNOW stock, ZS stock, and INTU stock fell 12%, 11.8%, and 6.8%, respectively.

Anthropic’s Threat

Reitzes reportedly said Anthropic’s latest update on its revenue run rate highlighted how software is increasingly being “tokenized” to replace and enhance labor across a market opportunity worth tens of trillions of dollars. He added that this shift is still in its very early stages, and companies need to align their narratives with this exponential trend for their stocks to perform.

“The market is getting it right in SaaS,” Reitzes said, as per CNBC.” “No platform is safe even as we’ve lost $1.4T in SaaS market cap since Anthropic was worth just $18B in January 2025.”

Meanwhile, John Belton, portfolio manager of GGRW ETF at Gabelli Funds, told CNBC that he would be keeping software exposure in the portfolios he manages at a low level until signs of stabilizing or bottoming sentiment were visible. ″[I’m] pretty confident that not every software company is going to be a loser, but I’m also confident that there will be many losers,” said Belton.

Reitzes has instead said that the clear beneficiaries of AI could continue to be in hardware, like in semiconductors.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around NOW shares, SNOW stock, and INTU shares was in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory at the time of writing, while retail sentiment for ZS stock was in the ‘bullish’ territory.

Meanwhile, retail sentiment around ANTHROPIC was ‘extremely bullish.’

One user dismissed the selloff, calling it “ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV), which tracks American software stocks, declined more than 4% at the time of writing.

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Also Read: NOW Stock Is Headed For Its Worst Week In Two Months — Will Q1 Results Bring Relief?