Here's what smart people are saying about a software apocalypse
AP and Getty Images
- Wall Street has cooled a bit after a massive sell-off wiped more than $1 trillion in Big Tech valuations.
- Recent AI advancements have undermined some investors' faith in established software names.
- Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Figma CEO Dylan Field have all weighed in.
Big Tech is continuing to bounce back after a brutal sell-off.
Wall Street's fears of AI-related disruption drove a sell-off of software stocks after the release of Anthropic's new industry-specific plug-in.
Not everyone in finance and tech is sold on the idea that AI is going to kill the software business.
From Nvidia's CEO dismissing the concerns, to Zoho's founder acknowledging the industry is "ripe for consolidation," here's what leaders in tech and finance are saying:
Steve Marcus/REUTERS
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said software is a tool for AI to use, rather than replace.
"There's this notion that the tool industry is in decline and will be replaced by AI," Huang said during a recent Cisco AI event. "You could tell because there's a whole bunch of software companies whose stock prices are under a lot of pressure because somehow AI is going to replace them. It is the most illogical thing in the world and time will prove itself."
Huang named ServiceNow, SAP, Cadence, and Synopsis, as bright spots in the industry.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said volatility will remain in the software market.
"It's different, it's definitely not dead," Altman said during an interview on TBPN. "How you create it, how you're going to use it, how much you're going to have written for you each time you need it, versus how much you'll want sort of a consistent UX —yeah, that's all going to change."
In the meantime, sell-offs like the one Wall Street has continued now are likely to continue.
"I think it's just going to be volatile for a while as people figure out what this looks like."
Dylan Field, Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Figma CEO Dylan Field said it's not just about building something quickly, it's about "building the right thing."
"Good enough, it works, it's not enough," he told CNBC in February. "You really have to focus."
Overall, Field said volatility is good for companies. Shares of Figma have dropped by over 79% over the past year, illustrating the growing pains for the design company since its highly touted IPO in July 2025.
"I think if you look back on this time, we'll just be a more resilient company overall," Field said.
Figma also announced a partnership with Anthropic on a tool that converts AI-generated code into editable designs.
Reuters
Steven Sinofsky, who helped lead the development of Windows 7 and 8, said AI may change "what we built and who builds it," but tales of software's demise are just "nonsense."
"Wall Street is filled with investors of all types. There's also a community, and they tend to run in herds. The past couple of weeks have definitely seen the herd collectively conclude that somehow software is dead. That the idea of a software pure play will just vanish into some language model," Sinofsky wrote in a lengthy post on X. "Nonsense."
Sinofsky said it is true some companies will fail. He also noted that such cycles have happened in retail and media.
"Strap in," he wrote. "This is the most exciting time for business and technology, ever."
Reuters
Arm CEO Rene Haas isn't panicking.
"As I look at enterprise AI deployment, we aren't anywhere close to where it can be," Haas told the Financial Times.
Haas, who leads the SoftBank-owned semiconductor company, said the current market reaction is "micro-hysteria."
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Anish Acharya, a general partner at A16z, said the sell-off was an overreaction based on a misunderstanding of how AI will be deployed.
"You have this innovation bazooka with these models," Acharya told podcaster Harry Stebbings during an episode of "20VC." "Why would you point it at rebuilding payroll or ERP or CRM, right? You're going to take it and use it to extend your core advantage as a business, or you're going to take it to optimize the other 90% that you're not spending on software today."
Acharya said there "will be secular losers," but overall, the sell-off was misguided.
"I think the general story that we're going to vibe code everything is flat wrong and the whole market is oversold software," he said.
Amplitude
Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates said the sell-off correctly identified that many SaaS companies are moving too slowly.
"The median SaaS company their innovation has actually slowed to a standstill," Skates told TBPN in February. "I don't know if you guys have ever been inside of these, but it's crazy how little they ship in terms of net new products."
Skates said AI has placed a major emphasis on the speed of innovation.
"It's like sushi," he said. "Buyers are always going to want the best thing. So, if you're keeping up with innovating the best thing, you will be able to charge a premium. It's fine that the 7-Eleven at the gas station now sells sushi. It's not going to put Jiro in Japan out of business."
Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services
AWS CEO Matt Garman said the current fears are "overblown."
"AI is absolutely a disruptive force that's going to change how software is consumed and how it's built," he told CNBC in February.
The top Amazon exec said current SaaS companies can still survive this moment.
"They have to innovate, just like the rest of the world," he said. "They can't stand still. If they stand still, they're absolutely going to be disrupted."
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