IBM posts AI-driven growth
- IBM reported first-quarter revenue growth driven by hybrid cloud, automation, and enterprise platforms. - Revenue rose 9% to $15.9 billion in Q1, reflecting stronger demand for hybrid-cloud and automation services. - The results suggest large enterprises are still funding practical AI automation and hybrid architecture projects. (infotechlead.com)
IBM opened 2026 with $15.9 billion in first-quarter revenue, a 9% increase from a year earlier. (ibm.com) The results, released April 22, showed growth across all three main businesses: software revenue rose 11%, consulting increased 4%, and infrastructure jumped 15%. (ibm.com) Net income from continuing operations was $1.2 billion, or $1.28 a share, while operating earnings were $1.91 a share. Free cash flow reached $2.2 billion, up $300 million from the same quarter last year. (ibm.com) IBM has spent the past several years remaking itself around hybrid cloud, which lets companies run software across their own data centers and public cloud services, and around artificial intelligence tools built for business tasks. Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said the quarter showed “broad-based revenue growth across our segments.” (ibm.com) The software unit gives the clearest read on that strategy. IBM said data revenue rose 16%, annual recurring revenue reached $24.6 billion, and Red Hat grew 10%, with OpenShift topping $2 billion in annual recurring revenue. (fool.com) Infrastructure also helped lift the quarter. IBM said IBM Z revenue surged 48% in its current product cycle, helping push infrastructure revenue up 12% at constant currency. (fool.com) Consulting was the slower piece of the business, with revenue up 1% at constant currency, but IBM said signings rose 6%. That suggests customers are still approving projects even as companies stay selective about where they spend. (fool.com) IBM kept its full-year forecast unchanged, saying it still expects more than 5% revenue growth at constant currency in 2026 and about $1 billion of year-over-year free-cash-flow improvement. (ibm.com) That leaves IBM making a narrower pitch than consumer-facing artificial intelligence companies: not chatbots for the public, but software and services for automating internal work, managing data, and linking old corporate systems to newer cloud tools. Its first quarter suggests that pitch is still finding buyers. (ibm.com; fool.com)
