Anthropic AI Shock and Tariff Jitters Slam Indian IT, Wipe Out ₹2.94 Lakh Crore

As IT stocks pulled the Sensex and Nifty into a broad-based selloff, Indian equity markets started sharply lower on February 24, 2026. Openly, investor wealth of around ₹2.94 lakh crore (about USD 35 billion) was wiped off, technology counters leading the fall. The decline occurred at a time of increased worldwide risk aversion and growing concerns that developing artificial intelligence capabilities might permanently harm conventional IT services paradigms.

Indian IT names were at the heart of the downturn, adding an already painful February in which Nifty IT declined some 16–19%. Anxiety about Anthropic's automation-focused tools, like Claude Code, which are seen as a direct danger to legacy modernization, application maintenance, and staffing-driven services, has knocked sentiment. Earlier in the month, marquee companies such Infosys and TCS had already experienced severe single-day declines of about 7–8% and 7%, respectively, therefore emphasizing the sector's susceptibility to concerns about AI disturbance.

Still, the selloff wasn't only a tech tale. Anthropic's artificial intelligence developments and associated concerns drew comparisons worldwide to IBM's past 13% fall, therefore raising worries about how rapidly AI may deplete conventional income sources. Within the country, this technical anxiety, combined with larger worries including tariff dangers from the Donald Trump administration and other trade conflicts, provides yet another layer of doubt. Market conditions were still shaky as of about 10:14 AM IST, and investors found it difficult to value both the rate of AI-driven transformation and changing global trade patterns.