Is IBM cool once more?

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Good morning. Is IBM cool once more? Throughout a NY Tech Week reception final night time at IBM’s new Manhattan headquarters, I quietly requested that query to some attendees. One individual cited Watson, the early chatbot that famously gained Jeopardy! in 2011, as proof of each the corporate’s pioneering innovation, and its capability to lose a giant lead. Others pointed to a constructive shift that’s occurred since Arvind Krishna grew to become CEO of Huge Blue in April 2020, each by way of the inventory value and significant development in realms like AI.

My colleague Sharon Goldman explores IBM’s rebound in our Fortune 500 bundle that revealed this week. In some ways, it’s a mannequin of resilience, having appeared on the Fortune 500 yearly since debuting at No. 61 on the inaugural listing in 1955. Nevertheless it was the one model amongst 17 U.S. tech corporations valued at $100 billion or extra to have misplaced market worth over the previous eight years when Krishna took over. 

Krishna is a 35-year IBM veteran who’s additionally its first CEO to boast an engineering background. And as Goldman writes, he was struck early on by the potential of AI. She writes: “Krishna, a PhD engineer with decades of research experience, instantly recognized a game changer—and a huge opportunity. Once these models were mature enough, he realized, they would be able to help businesses handle everything from customer service to chemistry equations to climate modeling with unprecedented scale and efficiency—creating powerful new products for IBM to sell.” 

Goldman provides that he has “steered billions in R&D money into new AI ‘foundation models’ and the infrastructure to support them. He also pushed the company to prepare for the rise of AI by updating its hybrid cloud platform—data-storage technology that Krishna had championed as the head of IBM’s cloud division.”

With the refill over 20% 12 months to this point, there are actually glimmers that Huge Blue may very well be gaining momentum. Krishna is actually up for the problem. As he advised Sharon: “Engineers don’t get scared about building big things.”

Learn Sharon’s full story right here.

Extra information under.

Contact CEO Day by day by way of Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

This story was initially featured on Fortune.com