The market has been talking for half a year about how AI would wipe out the business of IT consulting and outsourcing. When Accenture’s earnings report came out, that claim temporarily went quiet. In the fourth fiscal quarter, revenue came in at around $18.7 billion, beating expectations. Full-year new bookings of $84.5 billion set a record. The revenue guidance for fiscal 2027 was set at 3% to 6%, and the midpoint of that range is also higher than analysts expected.
The stock reaction was even more dramatic—shares jumped about 16%, the biggest single-day gain since the company went public. Well, Accenture is the one that does IT consulting and outsourcing for large enterprises; if AI were really going to disrupt this industry, it should be the first to feel the chill.
On the same night, storage and optical communications also surged. SK hynix, Micron, and Coherent all rose together, and Nvidia closed at a new closing high in more than five months. The AI hardware supply chain kept climbing too. Even the IT service providers that were rumored to be headed for layoffs weren’t dumped. The market seems to have set that issue aside for now.
The stock reaction was even more dramatic—shares jumped about 16%, the biggest single-day gain since the company went public. Well, Accenture is the one that does IT consulting and outsourcing for large enterprises; if AI were really going to disrupt this industry, it should be the first to feel the chill.
On the same night, storage and optical communications also surged. SK hynix, Micron, and Coherent all rose together, and Nvidia closed at a new closing high in more than five months. The AI hardware supply chain kept climbing too. Even the IT service providers that were rumored to be headed for layoffs weren’t dumped. The market seems to have set that issue aside for now.