Claude Security Tools Shake Up Market Landscape: Anthropic's Entry Triggers Crash in Cybersecurity Stocks, Accelerating Restructuring of AI Code Audit Sector

On February 24, it was reported that after artificial intelligence company Anthropic launched a research preview of the Claude code security tool on February 20, global cybersecurity sector sentiment quickly weakened, with many leading U.S. cybersecurity companies’ stock prices experiencing significant declines. The market is concerned that AI automation vulnerability auditing technology will reshape traditional cybersecurity service models, triggering a revaluation of industry competitive dynamics.

The tool is based on the Claude Opus 4.6 model, focusing on AI code vulnerability scanning and automatic repair suggestions. According to official descriptions, Claude can understand code context, track data flow, and identify potential vulnerabilities missed by traditional pattern-matching tools, while verifying detection results to reduce false positives. Testing shows that this model has identified hundreds of high-risk vulnerabilities, highlighting AI’s practical value in code security auditing.

Following this news, major U.S. cybersecurity companies’ stock prices came under collective pressure. Palo Alto Networks’ stock has fallen about 9% since the tool’s release, CrowdStrike’s decline is nearly 18%, with a significant reduction in market capitalization; Fortinet also experienced about a 9% pullback. Additionally, cloud security firms like Cloudflare and Zscaler were also affected by market sentiment, indicating that the market is digesting expectations of “AI replacing some security analysis jobs.”

Analyst Shrenik Kothari pointed out that this round of sell-off is more of a sentiment-driven and opinion-led phase adjustment, but not entirely irrational. Research firm Kobeissi Letter believes that as AI can replicate manual code auditing and vulnerability detection work, pricing power may gradually shift to enterprise clients, thereby compressing profit margins in traditional security services.

Meanwhile, financial firm Wedbush mentioned that concerns over so-called “AI ghost trading” are impacting valuations in the tech and security sectors. As AI code security detection, smart contract vulnerability scanning, and automated security repair tools rapidly mature, the cybersecurity industry may enter a period of technological revaluation. In the short term, the commercialization progress of AI security tools and enterprise adoption rates will be key variables influencing the performance of cybersecurity stocks and risk appetite in the tech sector.