IBM

IBM’s 2026 coverage pairs a $1B planned U.S. quantum grant with a sharp July share selloff and renewed execution scrutiny in Europe.

Who they are

IBM is an enterprise technology company whose coverage spans software, infrastructure, consulting, hybrid cloud and quantum computing, with Red Hat, Watson and large corporate and public-sector customers central to its story. Its long-running news footprint also connects it to major platform peers and partners including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon and Oracle.

The recent arc

Coverage accelerated through 2025 into 2026 as IBM’s strategic technologies met harder operational and market tests. In May, the Commerce Department’s planned quantum-computing awards put IBM in line for $1B of a $2B package that included government equity stakes, driving a 12% rise in its shares alongside gains for D-Wave and Rigetti. In July, however, IBM’s preliminary Q2 revenue of $17.2B, below estimates, and CEO Arvind Krishna’s observation that customers were shifting spending to chips preceded a 25% stock decline. Anthropic’s account of Claude Code automating parts of COBOL modernization had already contributed to a 13.15% share drop in February.

The tension

The coverage centers on whether IBM can convert its enterprise installed base and software portfolio into durable growth while AI changes the economics of the legacy modernization work on which IBM Consulting depends. The quantum opportunity offers a state-backed technology upside, but the moves around Claude Code and customers’ chip spending underline competitive pressure from AI providers and infrastructure priorities; the EU’s suit with Atos and Leonardo over delayed smart-border delivery adds execution risk.

Why it matters

If the trajectory holds, IBM will be a consequential test of whether a legacy enterprise vendor can use software, quantum research and partnerships to stay central as customers redirect budgets toward AI and compute. Its October results, led by 8% software growth, indicate some resilience, but the July reaction and the EU dispute show that investors and customers may judge that transition on delivery as much as on technical positioning.

Related: Microsoft · Google · Apple · Oracle · Shares of quantum computing companies surged Thursday after the US gov · Apple and IBM partner to develop iOS enterprise apps and cloud service