IBM (International Business Machines) traces its roots to 1911, when it was formed as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. It was renamed IBM in 1924 under Thomas Watson Sr. For much of the 20th century, IBM dominated computing — mainframes, punch cards, the PC standard, and enterprise IT services.
The company’s influence on technology history is hard to overstate. IBM researchers have earned six Nobel Prizes. The company invented DRAM, the relational database, the UPC barcode, and the floppy disk. IBM’s System/360, launched in 1964, established the concept of a computer architecture family.
Modern IBM looks very different from its hardware-dominant past. The company sold its PC division to Lenovo in 2005 and its x86 server business in 2014. Today, IBM focuses on hybrid cloud computing and AI, anchored by its $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat in 2019 — the largest software acquisition at the time.
Red Hat’s OpenShift, RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), and Ansible are now central to IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy. IBM also offers Watson-branded AI services, though the Watson brand has been de-emphasized in favor of newer AI products.
IBM’s consulting business generates significant revenue, helping enterprises modernize their IT infrastructure. Annual revenue is around $62 billion, with about $25 billion coming from software and the rest from consulting and infrastructure.
Headquartered in Armonk, New York, IBM employs approximately 288,000 people worldwide. CEO Arvind Krishna has led the company since 2020, pushing the hybrid cloud and AI strategy. IBM maintains one of the largest corporate research operations in the world through IBM Research.
