Anthropic targets $35)B valuation as fresh AI worries loom over professional jobs

Major legal and data companies saw their shares crash Tuesday after Anthropic rolled out workplace automation software, sparking fresh worries about artificial intelligence taking over professional jobs.

Market observers blamed Anthropic’s Friday launch of new add-ons for its Claude Cowork platform. The tools handle legal work, sales operations, marketing campaigns, and data processing independently.

The release has people wondering if AI might soon push out workers in industries that were supposed to benefit from the tech boom.

Thomson Reuters leads sharp declines across legal sector

The company suffered an 18% drop in its share price, the worst single day in the company’s history. The stock hasn’t been this low since June 2021. Mike Archibald, a portfolio manager at AGF Investments, said Anthropic’s move. “I think Anthropic came out with some plug-ins to tackle the legal space,” he said. “Obviously, that’s where Thomson Reuters generates a significant portion of their revenues.”

And it’s not just Tuesday’s losses. Thomson Reuters shares have declined by 33% so far this year, on top of about 22% in losses through 2025. Morgan Stanley released research showing how negative investors have turned.

Analyst Toni Kaplan and her team reported that their client conversations revealed widespread bearishness. “Most of the investors we have spoken with recently are overwhelmingly bearish on TRI, as the consensus opinion worries that the company will be unable to maintain the same level of growth within its legal segment given increased competition from specialized AI tools,” they wrote.

European companies in the same business also took a hit. RELX, the British firm, dropped 14%. Wolters Kluwer in the Netherlands fell roughly 13%. RELX shares are now sitting nearly 50% below their value in February 2025.

Other professional services firms also suffered losses. LegalZoom dropped 19.7%, Factset Research was down 10.5%, and Morningstar fell 9%. Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, including Experian, Sage Group, London Stock Exchange Group, and Pearson, posted losses ranging from 6% to 12%.

Schroders stock analyst Jonathan McMullan explained what is actually going on. “The selling pressure in software and data analytics reflects a deepening structural debate, accelerated today by Anthropic’s legal automation tool challenging incumbents like RELX,” he stated.

“Investors are aggressively repricing these areas as the historical ‘visibility premium’ erodes; the speed of AI advancement makes long-term valuations harder to defend, particularly as AI tools allow businesses to do more with fewer staff, threatening the traditional model of charging per software user.”

Big tech stocks also did not get away with it. Oracle dropped 3.4%, Nvidia dropped 2.8%, Microsoft dropped 2.9%, and Meta Platforms dropped 2.1%. The Nasdaq fell 1.43% while the S&P 500 fell 0.84%.

Advertising agencies suffered as well. Omnicom finished down 11.2%, and Publicis in France finished down more than 9%. Publicis recently declared that it will allocate approximately 900 million euros ($1.06 billion) for acquisitions in 2026, with an emphasis on data assets and AI-powered technology.

Companies that depend on ad revenue suffered too. Pinterest fell 5.6% and Snap dropped 8.4%. Giuseppe Sersale, a fund manager at Anthilia, summed up what investors are thinking. “Artificial intelligence is increasingly able to perform exactly the sort of programming and knowledge-based services that underpin these business models,” he said.

Anthropic’s value climbs while competitors face uncertainty

While established companies are struggling, Anthropic keeps growing fast. A source familiar with the matter says the AI company is putting together a deal that would let employees sell shares at a valuation of at least $350 billion. That’s happening at the same time as a funding round that could pull in over $20 billion.

The $350 billion number matches what’s being discussed in Anthropic’s current fundraising, the source said. Anthropic would not comment. The details of the tender offer aren’t final yet, said the source, who asked not to be named because the information is private.

Letting employees sell shares through secondary markets has become pretty common for startups trying to give workers a way to cash out. OpenAI, Anthropic’s main competitor, has done multiple share sales, including a $6.6 billion secondary in October at a $500 billion valuation.

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