International Business Machines Corp Stock Price, News & Analysis

IBM unveiled plans to build IBM Quantum Starling, the world's first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029 at a new Quantum Data Center in Poughkeepsie, NY. The system will perform 20,000 times more operations than current quantum computers, running 100 million quantum operations using 200 logical qubits. IBM introduced a breakthrough quantum low-density parity check (qLDPC) code that reduces physical qubit requirements by 90% compared to other codes. The roadmap includes intermediate systems: Loon (2025), Kookaburra (2026), and Cockatoo (2027), leading to Starling and later Blue Jay with 2,000 logical qubits. This fault-tolerant architecture aims to solve complex problems in drug development, materials discovery, and optimization that would require more than a quindecillion traditional supercomputers to process.

IBM has announced watsonx AI Labs, a new innovation hub in Manhattan's One Madison, designed to accelerate AI adoption and development. The initiative aims to connect IBM's enterprise resources with AI developers to build breakthrough business applications. As part of this launch, IBM will acquire expertise and license technology from Seek AI, a NYC-based startup specializing in AI agents for enterprise data. The lab will leverage NYC's growing AI ecosystem, which includes over 2,000 AI startups and has seen $27 billion in funding since 2019. IBM plans to support local startups through its global $500M Enterprise AI Venture Fund over the next five years, offering technical expertise, mentorship, and potential investment opportunities. The lab will focus on creating domain-specific AI solutions for enterprise challenges, including customer service, supply-chain optimization, cybersecurity, and responsible AI governance.

Deutsche Bank and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have expanded their strategic partnership through a new license agreement that provides Deutsche Bank with broader access to IBM's software solutions. The agreement encompasses IBM's business and IT automation stack, hybrid cloud products, watsonx AI portfolio, and upgrades to the IBM Storage Protect software suite.

The collaboration aims to help Deutsche Bank optimize business processes, modernize IT infrastructure, and enhance customer experience by replacing legacy solutions. This partnership extension builds upon their existing relationship, with Deutsche Bank leveraging IBM's technology to maximize ROI and streamline their technology stack.

Finanz Informatik (FI), the central IT service provider for over 340 savings banks in the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, has extended its collaboration with IBM (NYSE: IBM). The new contract focuses on modernizing FI's infrastructure with AI, automation, and hybrid cloud technology. The agreement includes implementation of state-of-the-art IBM mainframe, Power, and storage systems, along with AI-supported software components from the watsonx portfolio.

The partnership aims to accelerate digital transformation through Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, enhance cyber resilience in compliance with EU's DORA regulations, deliver privacy-focused AI solutions, and ensure sustainable IT infrastructure development. This collaboration will enable FI to improve service delivery, protect critical financial data, and maintain platform independence while supporting capacity growth.

Lumen Technologies and IBM have announced a strategic collaboration to develop enterprise-grade AI solutions at the edge, integrating IBM's watsonx AI portfolio with Lumen's Edge Cloud infrastructure. The partnership aims to enable real-time AI inferencing closer to data generation points, offering <5ms latency and direct cloud connectivity.

IBM Consulting will serve as the preferred systems integrator, helping clients scale deployments and reduce costs. The collaboration targets multiple industries including financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail, focusing on enabling faster insights and lower operational costs. A practical example includes helping a major retailer enhance customer service through AI-driven digital assistants and visual inspection tools.

IBM unveiled groundbreaking hybrid AI technologies at its THINK event, focusing on enterprise-scale AI implementation. The company introduced key innovations including: watsonx Orchestrate with AI agent capabilities that integrate with 80+ business applications, allowing agent creation in under 5 minutes; webMethods Hybrid Integration projected to deliver 176% ROI over three years; enhanced watsonx.data delivering 40% more accurate AI through improved unstructured data handling; and the new IBM LinuxONE 5 platform capable of processing 450 billion AI inference operations daily. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna emphasized that competitive advantage now comes from purpose-built AI integration driving measurable outcomes. The company projects over one billion apps by 2028 and is positioning these solutions to help enterprises overcome AI scaling challenges across fragmented environments.

A new IBM global study reveals CEOs are heavily investing in AI despite implementation challenges. The survey of 2,000 CEOs found that AI investment growth rates are expected to more than double in the next two years, with 61% actively adopting AI agents. While 72% view their organizational data as key to unlocking generative AI value, 50% acknowledge issues with disconnected technology due to rapid investments. Only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI, with just 16% scaled enterprise-wide. Looking ahead, 85% of CEOs expect positive ROI from AI efficiency investments by 2027. The study also highlights talent challenges, with 54% hiring for AI roles that didn't exist a year ago, and 31% of the workforce requiring retraining over the next three years.

IBM and Oracle have expanded their partnership to advance AI and hybrid cloud capabilities. The collaboration includes making IBM's watsonx portfolio available on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Key announcements include: watsonx Orchestrate will be available on OCI in July to support multi-agent workflows, IBM's Granite family of AI models will be accessible through OCI Data Science, and IBM Envizi ESG Suite will launch on OCI starting in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, watsonx.ai is now certified to run on OCI. IBM Consulting is expanding its services to help customers implement AI agents across platforms and migrate workloads to Red Hat OpenShift on OCI.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and EY have announced the launch of EY.ai for tax, built with IBM's watsonx AI technology. The solution combines IBM's AI capabilities with EY's tax expertise to revolutionize tax compliance processes. Three key AI-enabled solutions have been introduced:

1. Intelligent Tax Data Lake: Consolidates tax filing data from multiple sources using watsonx.data and watsonx.ai 2. Detect and Correct with Business Documents: Extracts and verifies data from unstructured invoices 3. Withholding Tax Determinations: Automates monthly withholding tax rate calculations

Currently implemented in IBM's Tax Department, these solutions are expected to save tens of thousands of hours annually, with IBM on track to automate 80% of its foreign tax compliance. The system streamlines data consolidation from 36 sources while prioritizing security and trust in handling sensitive tax data.