IBM posts 5% sales growth that tops estimates, says infrastructure deals came back
Its closely-watched software unit grows 8.3% to US$7.8 billion, ahead of Wall Street expectations
In a report that exceeded Wall Street expectations, International Business Machines (IBM) announced a sales growth of 5 per cent, reaching US$17.1 billion for the quarter ended September 30. The company's infrastructure unit, which encompasses mainframe servers, grew by 4 per cent to US$3.7 billion. These results surpassed analysts' average projections.
According to Jim Kavanaugh, IBM's chief financial officer, approximately two-thirds of the delayed mainframe and associated software deals from earlier in 2026 have been finalized. Earlier this year, IBM indicated that customers had temporarily redirected their expenditures towards chips and servers due to artificial intelligence-related supply chain disruptions, which negatively impacted its mainframe and software divisions.
This situation caused investor anxiety over the potential disruption of AI tools in various software industries, leading to a 25 per cent drop in IBM's stock price, the steepest decline since at least 1968.
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