Arvind Krishna joined IBM in 1990 as an engineer and rose to become chief executive in April 2020 and chairman in January 2021. He is the principal architect of IBM's pivot to hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence, most visibly through the $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat that he championed before becoming CEO.
Under Krishna, IBM has reshaped its portfolio around software and AI, spinning off its managed-infrastructure business as Kyndryl in 2021 and pursuing a string of acquisitions, including HashiCorp and Confluent. Its watsonx AI platform reported a generative-AI book of business surpassing $12.5 billion by the end of 2025, while demand for IBM Z mainframes surged.
IBM occupies a quieter but foundational tier of technology platform control: its mainframes process a large share of the world's banking and transaction workloads, and its hybrid-cloud and AI software increasingly sit inside the operations of governments and large enterprises.
What they control
- IBM: chairman, president and CEO of the enterprise-technology company
- Red Hat: the open-source hybrid-cloud unit (OpenShift, Enterprise Linux) acquired for $34 billion
- watsonx: IBM's generative-AI platform for enterprises
- IBM Z mainframes: systems that process a large share of global transaction workloads
- IBM Quantum: one of the leading corporate quantum-computing programs
- Recent acquisitions including HashiCorp and Confluent that expand automation and data streaming
Key institutions & holdings
Enterprise technology firm with revenue in the tens of billions and a market value around $200 billion.
Acquired in 2019 for $34 billion; anchors IBM's hybrid-cloud strategy.
Corporate quantum-computing effort Krishna has publicly committed to scaling.
Key facts
- Became IBM CEO in April 2020 and chairman in January 2021.
- Championed the $34 billion Red Hat acquisition, the largest software deal at the time.
- Announced the acquisition of HashiCorp for $6.4 billion in April 2024; the deal closed in 2025.
- IBM agreed to acquire data-streaming firm Confluent in a deal valued around $11 billion.
- IBM's watsonx generative-AI book of business surpassed $12.5 billion by the fourth quarter of 2025.
- Spun off IBM's managed-infrastructure-services business as Kyndryl in November 2021.
Timeline
- 1990Joins IBM as an engineer.
- 2019Helps drive IBM's $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat.
- 2020-04Becomes chief executive of IBM, succeeding Ginni Rometty.
- 2021-01Becomes chairman of IBM.
- 2024-04Announces the $6.4 billion acquisition of HashiCorp.
- 2025Closes the HashiCorp deal and agrees to acquire Confluent.
Controversies
Age-discrimination allegations at IBM · 2018-2022
IBM has faced reporting and litigation alleging it pushed out older U.S. workers during its restructuring toward newer technologies, claims the company has contested.
AI and job displacement · 2023-2025
Krishna has publicly said IBM expects to pause or replace thousands of back-office roles with AI over time, fueling debate over automation's effect on white-collar employment.
Network
- Ginni RomettyPredecessorFormer IBM chairman and CEO whom Krishna succeeded.
- James KavanaughLieutenantLongtime IBM chief financial officer.
Why this matters
IBM's systems quietly underpin the world's banks, insurers, airlines, and governments, from the mainframes that clear transactions to the hybrid-cloud and AI layers increasingly embedded in public administration. Decisions by one company about how AI is deployed, what it costs, and where critical workloads run ripple across infrastructure most citizens never see but depend on every day.