IBM reported a 61% year-over-year increase in fourth-quarter mainframe revenue, marking the strongest quarterly performance since the early 2000s. Growth was driven by the company’s new z17 systems, which IBM designed specifically for artificial intelligence workloads. Each z17 mainframe can process up to 450 billion AI inference operations per day while maintaining sub-millisecond response times. CEO Arvind Krishna forecast that within the next three to five years, around half of all enterprise AI workloads will migrate from public clouds back to private data centers. This shift positions IBM’s mainframe division to capture a significant share of the emerging AI inference market, particularly among financial services, healthcare and government clients prioritizing data sovereignty and low-latency processing.

Effective March 1, 2026, IBM’s board voted to add Ramon L. Laguarta, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, bringing extensive experience in large-scale technology adoption and digital transformation. Laguarta has led PepsiCo since 2018, overseeing a multi-year portfolio overhaul that emphasized data analytics, supply-chain automation and direct-to-consumer e-commerce initiatives. He previously served as president of developing markets in Europe and as CEO of PepsiCo’s Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa operations. IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna cited Laguarta’s track record of leveraging technology to drive operational efficiency and shareholder value as a key asset for guiding IBM’s next phase of growth.