India’s impact on the technology sector is frequently mentioned when people talk about talent, outsourcing, and start-up development. However, in early February 2026, an Indian born tech executive is in the middle of a much larger transition, one that rocked world markets and made investors re-evaluate the future of software firms. With the release of the newest Claude tools by Anthropic AI, global tech stocks both in the US and India experienced a mass sell-off, costing billions in market share in a few days. At the heart of this disruption is Rahul Patil, whose efforts at Anthropic have now triggered what many on Wall Street are now referring to as the ‘SaaSpocalypse’. Also Read: Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 AI model brings bigger context and smarter reasoning
Also Read: How an Anthropic AI release triggered a $285 billion stock sell-off
What Triggered the Global SaaSpocalypse
Under the leadership of Patil in Anthropic, artificial intelligence has been pushed past the chatbots to full-scale automation. This development has made investors reexamine the future of software business. Also Read: Tim Cook Drops A Hint: Apple’s Next Big AI Move Could Change How Siri Works
The market reaction came in after the release of the newest Claude AI tools in early February 2026 by Anthropic. These tools are not just built to provide responses to questions. They are able to work on complete workflows like reviewing legal documents, managing code, doing sales work, and data analysis without human oversight.
Meanwhile, Patil announced that its AI platform would be able to accomplish SAP system migrations in weeks, not years. This was a surprise as the services of enterprise software were regarded as inaccessible to automation.
A combination of these events brought about what traders are currently referring to as the SaaSpocalypse.
How Wall Street Reacts to the Patil Effect
The influence was direct and extreme. In one day, almost three hundred billion worth of stocks in US markets were wiped out.
Amazon fell nearly 10 per cent and reached an all-time low. Apple shares fell by 1.29% to $274.53. Meta was also falling because investors were rushing out of tech investments.
The mid-sized software companies were even more severely affected. LegalZoom fell by nearly 20%. EPAM Systems dropped down nearly 13%. Even global companies like Expedia Group and Thomson Reuters experienced severe drops as the markets reconsidered the place of AI in professional services.
Why Investors Are Worried
It is not the issue of smarter AI alone. Investors are responding to AI systems that are able to replace entire software solutions and service processes.
The new abilities of Claude will mean that fewer SaaS tools will be needed since one AI agent can perform end-to-end tasks. This poses a threat to the business model of most software firms.
Rahul Patil’s Role at Anthropic
In October 2025, Anthropic brought in Rahul Patil as CTO with one directive and which is to scale AI to be faster and cheaper to enterprise customers. He worked on the efficiency of AI being operated in high cost equipment, he was able to cut costs by getting better memory access as well as optimization of the system.
He also reshaped teams to have infrastructure, product and AI engineers working in close coordination. This enabled Anthropic to sell AI agents to businesses at all times.
From Bengaluru to Global AI Leadership
Patil pursued engineering at Bengaluru and then took up higher education in the US. He has worked in senior positions at Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Oracle and Stripe.
The presence of Anthropic in Bengaluru is now growing, turning India to be a major component of its world AI policy. The company is worth approximately $183 billion and it is defining the future of enterprise AI.
