Use of Artificial Intelligence in elections will be monitored by TRE Yet another company takes artificial intelligence for granted. IBM faced a strong market reaction after releasing a letter to investors in which CEO Arvind Krishna acknowledged that the company was unable to react quickly enough to an unexpected change in customer behavior. After the document was released, the company's shares closed down 25%, the biggest drop in value since 1972, according to the Financial Times newspaper. The company lost US$68 billion (R$346.12 billion) in market value, according to a survey by Elos Ayta. In the letter, Krishna states that the results for the second quarter of 2026 — which will be released next Wednesday (22) — were below the company's expectations, mainly due to the performance of the infrastructure area. The division's revenue fell 7%, pressured by difficulties in business related to Z systems, IBM's traditional mainframes (large computers), and the software associated with these equipment, especially in transaction processing. "These conditions required our teams to execute perfectly, and this quarter we failed. We didn't adapt and we didn't move fast enough", laments the executive to investors. According to him, several large contracts were not completed within the expected deadlines, which represented the majority of the negative impact on the result. How does AI fit into this mix? The problem, according to IBM, came from a rapid change in clients' investment strategy. In the last weeks of June, companies began to direct their capital expenditure towards the purchase of servers, storage and memory, seeking to secure equipment in the face of possible supply restrictions and price increases. The company stated that it already expected some impact related to the supply chain, but did not foresee the intensity of this change in customer priorities. As companies from different sectors began to invest more in AI, the need for an infrastructure capable of supporting this technology increased. It was precisely this movement that changed the investment priorities of IBM's customers: instead of following the expected schedule for some of the company's traditional purchases, they directed part of the budget to securing computing equipment before possible supply restrictions and price increases. Visitors walk past the IBM logo at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, ??Spain March 3, 2026 REUTERS/Nacho Doce And it showed in the numbers. Despite the 7% drop in heavy and old Z mainframes, a more traditional area of ??its infrastructure, another area emerged. The so-called distributed infrastructure — which brings together servers, storage and solutions aimed at more modern technological environments — had the company's best historical performance, with growth of 37% in the quarter. Period does not define strategy Despite acknowledging the failure, the CEO stated that the result does not change IBM's confidence in its long-term strategy. “Our job is to help our clients navigate periods of uncertainty and find ways to grow their businesses, regardless of what is happening in the external environment,” said Krishna. The company also highlighted advances in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. IBM announced Lightwell, a US$5 billion (R$25.45 billion) initiative aimed at using new AI capabilities to create a trusted platform for managing vulnerabilities in open source software, with participation from more than 20,000 engineers and initial adoption by large financial institutions. In quantum computing, the company stated that it intends to invest more than US$10 billion (R$50.9 billion) over the next five years in research, development, manufacturing, acquisitions and expansion of the ecosystem. IBM maintains its goal of delivering the first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029. Quantum computer Getty Images What to expect from the balance sheet In the quarter, IBM recorded revenue of US$17.2 billion (R$87.54 billion), an increase of 1% year-on-year. The software division grew 5%, while the consulting area remained practically stable. Adjusted earnings per share rose 5%, to US$2.93 (R$14.91), but infrastructure performance was below expectations and led the company to review investors' perception about the pace of adaptation of the company to the new cycle of investments in technology.