Cloud-focused cybersecurity stocks plunged on Friday after Anthropic unveiled Claude Code Security, a feature released as a limited research preview that the company says is capable of autonomously locating and repairing software vulnerabilities. Investors reacted by sending shares of several established security vendors lower as they reassessed the market outlook for conventional threat-detection and monitoring tools.
Market moves
Among the hardest hit, CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) dropped 6.8% and identity-security provider Okta Inc (NASDAQ:OKTA) fell 9.2% on the session. Cloudflare Inc (NYSE:NET) slid 6.7%, while SailPoint Inc (NASDAQ:SAIL) recorded a 9.1% decline. Even vendors that have already embedded AI features in their platforms were not immune: Zscaler Inc (NASDAQ:ZS) moved down 3.5% as investors weighed the implications of agentic AI tools.
What Anthropic disclosed
Anthropic described Claude Code Security as a capability intended to scan codebases for nuanced logic errors that can elude manual reviewers. The company emphasized that the feature is aimed at defenders, stating: "Claude Code Security is intended to put this power squarely in the hands of defenders and protect code against this new category of AI-enabled attack."
According to Anthropic, its underlying model, Claude Opus 4.6, has identified more than 500 vulnerabilities in production open-source codebases during internal stress testing. The company adds that "every finding goes through a multi-stage verification process before it reaches an analyst" to help ensure high-fidelity results and reduce false positives.
Investor concerns and sector context
Market participants signaled concern that tools which can uncover long-standing, hard-to-find bugs could erode the long-term value proposition of established enterprise security suites. The primary worry is that automated, agent-style systems may shift security work away from reactive monitoring and toward proactive, automated repair - a structural change that could alter competitive dynamics in the cybersecurity space.
Analysts and investors have been sensitive to similar dynamics elsewhere in software, where generative AI's move from experimental feature to core enterprise layer has produced bouts of volatility. The episode follows a pattern in which markets have penalized software sub-sectors when AI-enabled alternatives threaten legacy subscription models.
Outlook considerations
Anthropic framed the broader trajectory succinctly in its commentary: "We expect that a significant share of the world’s code will be scanned by AI in the near future." That view, paired with the company's internal testing results, appears to have prompted market participants to reassess revenue durability and competitive moats among traditional security vendors.
This report focuses on the immediate market reaction to Anthropic's limited research preview of Claude Code Security and does not evaluate long-term product performance or adoption beyond the facts disclosed by the company.