Shares in HgCapital (HGT) have fallen 9% this morning after artificial intelligence (AI) developer Anthropic unveiled a new legal tool which has thrown the future relevance of data companies into question.

The £2.1bn private equity trust specialises in unquoted software businesses, with its highest allocations to accounting (31% of the portfolio), payroll (22%) and legal compliance companies (19%) – all sectors likely to be affected by Anthropic’s new productivity tool.

HgCapital’s share price hit 368p by 10am, marking its lowest price since October 2023.

It compounds on a steep sell-off that started on Tuesday last week, with shares down a sizable 26.5% since then. London-based Boldhaven Management upped its short position in the trust to 0.63% on Thursday.

The drawdown has wiped out gains for long-term investors in HGT, who have seen their five-year return of 49% at the start of last week fall to 10.5% today.

JP Morgan Cazenove downgraded its ‘overweight’ recommendation on HGT to ‘neutral’ today due to the ‘uncertain outlook for software valuations’ and ‘AI disruption concerns’.

Many data companies have taken a hit this week, with the likes of Relx and Experian losing 14.6% and 7.9% off their share prices respectively since markets opened on Monday.

Both are top holdings in Nick Train’s Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT), which is down 5% this week.

One trust that could be set to benefit, however, is Scottish Mortgage (SMT), which acquired a stake in Anthropic late last year. The private AI company currently accounts for 0.68% of SMT’s £13.8bn portfolio.