IBM CEO Arvind Krishna pre-announces earnings miss, shares plunge over 25%

IBM announced a significant revenue shortfall eight days before its July 22 earnings call, a decision driven by slowed enterprise IT budgets and rising AI expenses. Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna explained that customers are postponing infrastructure projects to cover higher costs for memory, storage and servers, while attention is also drawn to security concerns around an AI model from Anthropic. The pre-announcement sent IBM’s stock down more than 25%, one of the sharpest declines the 115-year-old firm has seen.

Krishna justified the early disclosure as a way to move the earnings discussion toward solutions rather than post-mortem explanations. He also noted that a third of the largest infrastructure deals have already been closed, framing the weakness as a temporary deferral rather than a permanent loss. The CEO acknowledged the risk of activist pressure but said preparedness is essential in today’s market.