International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a global technology and consulting company headquartered in Armonk, New York. Founded in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and renamed IBM in 1924, the company has evolved from early electromechanical machines to a diversified technology provider serving enterprises and governments worldwide. IBM is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol IBM.
IBM's principal businesses encompass cloud computing and software, infrastructure and systems, consulting and technology services, and research and development. The company provides hybrid cloud platforms and services designed to help organizations integrate on-premises, private cloud and public cloud environments, and it bolstered this strategy with the acquisition of Red Hat. IBM also develops enterprise software and AI capabilities, including cognitive and analytics tools aimed at automating business processes and extracting insights from data. On the systems side, IBM produces enterprise servers and mainframe technologies, storage solutions, and pursues emerging technologies such as quantum computing through its research divisions.
IBM operates on a global scale, serving clients across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. Its offerings target large enterprises and public-sector organizations in industries such as finance, healthcare, telecommunications and manufacturing. IBM Research has been a long-standing part of the company’s innovation engine, contributing to advances in computing, materials, and artificial intelligence and historically holding a significant portfolio of patents.
Leadership of the company is focused on positioning IBM as a provider of hybrid cloud and AI-enabled enterprise solutions; Arvind Krishna has served as chief executive officer since April 2020 and was subsequently named chairman of the board. IBM continues to combine hardware, software, services and research capabilities to support digital transformation initiatives and long-term technology modernization for its customers.