Software stocks have been in a tailspin since 2026

Software stocks have been in a tailspin since the beginning of the year, dragging the broader technology sector lower. Yet beneath the surface, the market tells a very different story. As our Alpine Macro chart shows, many non-tech sectors are quietly marching to new highs.

Investor anxiety has been rampant. The rapid diffusion of AI is widely feared to upend traditional service industries, disrupt established workflows, and render large swaths of legacy software obsolete.

But is this fear overblown?

Every major technological breakthrough unleashes creative destruction. The market, however, often fixates on the destruction phase while underestimating the scale of the value creation that follows.

If parts of software are vulnerable, the more important question is: which sectors stand to benefit from AI-driven productivity gains, cost compression, and new revenue models? Creative destruction rarely destroys value in aggregate. It grows and redisributes it.