IBM
IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, founded in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R) and renamed in 1924. Under the 42-year leadership of Thomas J. Watson Sr., IBM grew from a maker of punched-card tabulating machines into a global force in information technology[^c1]. The company dominated the mainframe computer market with the System/360, survived a decade-long antitrust battle, lost its early lead in personal computers, and underwent a dramatic turnaround in the 1990s that shifted its focus from hardware to IT services and software[^c2]. In the 21st century, IBM repositioned itself as a platform company centered on hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence, anchored by the acquisition of Red Hat in 2019[^c3].
IBM Research, founded in 1945, has produced six Nobel Prizes and pioneered technologies including the relational database, DRAM, the hard disk drive, the scanning tunneling microscope, and both the Fortran programming language and the UPC barcode[^c4]. The company's culture, shaped by Watson's "THINK" slogan, emphasized salesmanship, employee education, and tackling "seemingly impossible tasks"[^c5]. IBM mainframes handle approximately 70 percent of the world's production IT workloads, and 45 of the top 50 banks run mainframes as their core platform[^c16][^c17].
In 2025, IBM generated $67.5 billion in revenue, with software accounting for approximately 45 percent of total revenue[^c6]. IBM's cumulative generative AI business reached $12.5 billion, backed by the watsonx platform, of which $4.5 billion came from internal deployment[^c15]. The company beat Wall Street expectations in the first quarter of 2026, reporting $15.92 billion in revenue[^c7].
At Think 2026, IBM introduced its AI Operating Model, a blueprint integrating data, agents, automation, and hybrid infrastructure to help enterprises run AI at the core of their business[^c13]. IBM Consulting simultaneously unveiled a Services-as-Software transformation, shifting from labor-based consulting to platform-leveraged, outcome-based engagements[^c14]. Between 2025 and 2026, Gartner named IBM a Leader in seven data and AI-related Magic Quadrant reports.
In June 2026, IBM announced plans to invest more than $10 billion in quantum computing over five years, targeting the world's first fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029[^c8]. IBM also entered a major partnership with Nvidia for its Vera Rubin AI accelerator platform, driving its stock to an all-time high with a 9.1 percent surge and approximately 30 percent gains in May 2026 — its best monthly performance in nearly 24 years[^c9][^c12]. The company has a robust presence in 175 countries and serves a diverse clientele including 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies[^c11].