2018
Annual
Report
,Dear IBM Investor:
2018 was a defining year for IBM and our
clients. Your company returned to growth,
just as businesses readied to enter
Chapter 2 of their digital reinventions.
For years, we have focused on building the tools businesses 2018: Return to Growth
need in the 21st century. Our investments have reshaped IBM In 2018, IBM achieved $79.6 billion in revenue and operating
to lead in the emerging, high-value segments of the IT market, earnings per share of $13.81. For the full year, we returned to
including analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud, security, revenue growth, grew earnings per share and stabilized margins.
blockchain and quantum computing. At the same time, we have Our strategic and continued investment in innovative
deepened our longstanding commitment to the responsible technology drove our improved competitive position and profit
stewardship of technology. dynamics. Offerings that address data, AI, cloud, analytics and
IBM is now ready to help our clients advance their cybersecurity now represent more than half of our revenue—up
business transformations. from a quarter just four years ago—accounting for approximately
In my letter to you this year, I will describe IBM’s $40 billion in revenue in 2018.
performance in 2018. I will outline how clients are poised Our investment of more than $5 billion in research and
to enter Chapter 2 of their digital reinventions, with help from development produced thousands of breakthrough innovations,
IBM, and how this translates to growth for IBM, for businesses which led to IBM’s 26th consecutive year of U.S. patent leadership.
and for the world. Of the 9,100 patents granted to IBM in 2018, more than 1,600
were related to AI and 1,400 to cybersecurity—more than any
other company in either area.
,2
This focus on breakthrough innovation has created New IBM investments are further energizing our portfolio.
IBM’s strongest portfolio ever and has driven results: In late 2018, we announced plans to acquire Red Hat, the world’s
leading open source technology provider for the enterprise.
–– Total cloud revenues were more than $19 billion in 2018, up With this acquisition, which is expected to close in the second
12 percent. In the fourth quarter alone, IBM signed 16 client half of 2019, IBM will enhance our position as the world’s number
services agreements worth more than $100 million to help one hybrid cloud provider, helping clients unlock the full business
optimize business performance on the IBM Cloud. Today, value of the cloud.
47 of the Fortune 50 depend on the IBM Cloud. We also continued to divest stand-alone software and
services assets that are no longer strategic for IBM.
–– IBM is the world’s enterprise AI leader. Solutions enabled At the same time, we remained committed to returning
by IBM Watson are helping produce better decision-making capital to our shareholders. In 2018, we returned more than
and business outcomes through more than 20,000 client $10 billion to you, our shareholders, including dividends
engagements, across 20 industries to date. IDC ranked of $5.7 billion and gross share repurchases of $4.4 billion.
IBM number one in AI market share. We continue to pioneer We raised our dividend for the 23rd consecutive year—IBM’s
innovations in natural language processing, speech processing, 103rd straight year of providing one.
computer vision and machine learning.
Moving Clients to the Next Chapter of Digital Reinvention
–– IBM Blockchain is the global leader in improving trust and For the past several years, businesses around the world have been
transparency across business networks by creating a new driving their digital reinventions to take advantage of data, their
way for clients to share and secure data. IBM Blockchain most powerful source of competitive advantage.
now powers more than 500 client projects, with more than This first chapter has been defined largely by experimenting
85 active networks transforming supply chains, global with narrow and disparate AI applications and moving simple
shipping and cross-border finance. workloads—typically consumer and customer-facing applications—
to the cloud.
–– IBM Security, the world’s largest cybersecurity enterprise, Now, we are beginning to see the contours of Chapter 2
has 8,000 subject matter experts serving more than 17,000 among pioneering businesses: moving from experimentation to
clients in more than 130 countries. The industry’s leading true business transformation at scale with AI and hybrid cloud.
AI and cloud-based security solutions include IBM Security This next chapter of digital reinvention will be enterprise-
Connect, launched in 2018, which allows clients to gather, driven. It will be characterized first by scaling AI and embedding
integrate and analyze security data across multiple applications it everywhere in business. Second, in cloud, it will be characterized
and tools, in a vendor-agnostic way. by moving mission-critical applications to hybrid cloud—
using a combination of multiple public clouds, private clouds,
–– IBM Systems produces innovative infrastructure for AI and on-premise IT capabilities, so businesses can create
and hybrid cloud. The z14 is one of IBM’s most successful the environment most suitable for their enterprise workloads.
mainframe programs in history, with broad global adoption Underpinning it all is the growing importance of trust, both
across 27 different industry segments. In addition, the in technologies and in their impact on the world.
U.S. Department of Energy’s POWER9-based supercomputers,
Summit and Sierra, were ranked the most powerful Scaling AI throughout the Enterprise
supercomputers in the world in 2018. In Chapter 2 of their digital reinventions, businesses will begin
to scale AI across the enterprise, as some first movers are already
–– IBM Services was a key driver of IBM’s performance in 2018. demonstrating.
Forty-seven engagements worth more than $100 million Take the world’s leading banks, for example. While many
each helped major clients—like Bank of the Philippine Islands, have been applying AI to specific challenges, some first movers
Juniper Networks, Nordea, Westpac and Aditya Birla Retail— are scaling AI across the enterprise. Orange Bank, one of the
move to the next stage of their digital transformations. fastest growing mobile banks in France, now manages all customer
, service through IBM Watson. Similarly, Banco Bradesco
is now using IBM Watson to assist every member of its services
team—resolving customer inquiries in seconds with nearly
95 percent accuracy.
IBM brought AI for business into the mainstream
with the introduction of our Watson platform in 2014. Today,
IBM Watson is the most open and trusted AI for business,
available to run on any environment—on premise, and in private
and public clouds. Businesses can apply Watson to data wherever
it is hosted and infuse AI into their applications, regardless of
where they reside.
With Watson Studio, Watson Machine Learning and Watson
OpenScale, IBM delivers a suite of tools that allow enterprises
to build, deploy and manage their AI models in a hybrid cloud
environment. IBM Watson OpenScale, a first-of-a-kind platform
introduced in 2018, also enables businesses to manage their AI—
no matter where it was built or where it runs—with transparency,
explainability and bias mitigation. Addressing these factors, which
traditionally have held businesses back, is critical for scaling
AI throughout an enterprise.
Through IBM Services, we are helping our clients around
the world apply AI to core business processes and workflows,
infusing their businesses with automation, intelligence and
continuous learning to transform everything from supply chains
and HR to finance and operations.
In 2018, we also launched a new service called IBM Talent
and Transformation that addresses the often overlooked cultural
aspects of AI. This service helps our clients ensure their teams Virginia M. Rometty
have the right skills and talent—and the supporting culture and Chairman, President and
work environment—to support a new way of working that is critical Chief Executive Officer
to scaling AI for business.
Moving Mission-Critical Work to Hybrid Cloud
In the first chapter of digital reinvention, cloud deployments
largely focused on easily portable workloads for productivity and
commodity computing. This primarily was driven by user-facing
applications inspired by advances in consumer technology.
As a result, only 20 percent of enterprise workloads today have
moved to the cloud.
The remaining 80 percent of enterprise workloads provides
the real value opportunity for business—transforming mission-
critical workloads and applications for the cloud. The challenge is
that most businesses have unique regulatory or data requirements
and anywhere from five to 15 clouds across multiple providers.
Annual
Report
,Dear IBM Investor:
2018 was a defining year for IBM and our
clients. Your company returned to growth,
just as businesses readied to enter
Chapter 2 of their digital reinventions.
For years, we have focused on building the tools businesses 2018: Return to Growth
need in the 21st century. Our investments have reshaped IBM In 2018, IBM achieved $79.6 billion in revenue and operating
to lead in the emerging, high-value segments of the IT market, earnings per share of $13.81. For the full year, we returned to
including analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud, security, revenue growth, grew earnings per share and stabilized margins.
blockchain and quantum computing. At the same time, we have Our strategic and continued investment in innovative
deepened our longstanding commitment to the responsible technology drove our improved competitive position and profit
stewardship of technology. dynamics. Offerings that address data, AI, cloud, analytics and
IBM is now ready to help our clients advance their cybersecurity now represent more than half of our revenue—up
business transformations. from a quarter just four years ago—accounting for approximately
In my letter to you this year, I will describe IBM’s $40 billion in revenue in 2018.
performance in 2018. I will outline how clients are poised Our investment of more than $5 billion in research and
to enter Chapter 2 of their digital reinventions, with help from development produced thousands of breakthrough innovations,
IBM, and how this translates to growth for IBM, for businesses which led to IBM’s 26th consecutive year of U.S. patent leadership.
and for the world. Of the 9,100 patents granted to IBM in 2018, more than 1,600
were related to AI and 1,400 to cybersecurity—more than any
other company in either area.
,2
This focus on breakthrough innovation has created New IBM investments are further energizing our portfolio.
IBM’s strongest portfolio ever and has driven results: In late 2018, we announced plans to acquire Red Hat, the world’s
leading open source technology provider for the enterprise.
–– Total cloud revenues were more than $19 billion in 2018, up With this acquisition, which is expected to close in the second
12 percent. In the fourth quarter alone, IBM signed 16 client half of 2019, IBM will enhance our position as the world’s number
services agreements worth more than $100 million to help one hybrid cloud provider, helping clients unlock the full business
optimize business performance on the IBM Cloud. Today, value of the cloud.
47 of the Fortune 50 depend on the IBM Cloud. We also continued to divest stand-alone software and
services assets that are no longer strategic for IBM.
–– IBM is the world’s enterprise AI leader. Solutions enabled At the same time, we remained committed to returning
by IBM Watson are helping produce better decision-making capital to our shareholders. In 2018, we returned more than
and business outcomes through more than 20,000 client $10 billion to you, our shareholders, including dividends
engagements, across 20 industries to date. IDC ranked of $5.7 billion and gross share repurchases of $4.4 billion.
IBM number one in AI market share. We continue to pioneer We raised our dividend for the 23rd consecutive year—IBM’s
innovations in natural language processing, speech processing, 103rd straight year of providing one.
computer vision and machine learning.
Moving Clients to the Next Chapter of Digital Reinvention
–– IBM Blockchain is the global leader in improving trust and For the past several years, businesses around the world have been
transparency across business networks by creating a new driving their digital reinventions to take advantage of data, their
way for clients to share and secure data. IBM Blockchain most powerful source of competitive advantage.
now powers more than 500 client projects, with more than This first chapter has been defined largely by experimenting
85 active networks transforming supply chains, global with narrow and disparate AI applications and moving simple
shipping and cross-border finance. workloads—typically consumer and customer-facing applications—
to the cloud.
–– IBM Security, the world’s largest cybersecurity enterprise, Now, we are beginning to see the contours of Chapter 2
has 8,000 subject matter experts serving more than 17,000 among pioneering businesses: moving from experimentation to
clients in more than 130 countries. The industry’s leading true business transformation at scale with AI and hybrid cloud.
AI and cloud-based security solutions include IBM Security This next chapter of digital reinvention will be enterprise-
Connect, launched in 2018, which allows clients to gather, driven. It will be characterized first by scaling AI and embedding
integrate and analyze security data across multiple applications it everywhere in business. Second, in cloud, it will be characterized
and tools, in a vendor-agnostic way. by moving mission-critical applications to hybrid cloud—
using a combination of multiple public clouds, private clouds,
–– IBM Systems produces innovative infrastructure for AI and on-premise IT capabilities, so businesses can create
and hybrid cloud. The z14 is one of IBM’s most successful the environment most suitable for their enterprise workloads.
mainframe programs in history, with broad global adoption Underpinning it all is the growing importance of trust, both
across 27 different industry segments. In addition, the in technologies and in their impact on the world.
U.S. Department of Energy’s POWER9-based supercomputers,
Summit and Sierra, were ranked the most powerful Scaling AI throughout the Enterprise
supercomputers in the world in 2018. In Chapter 2 of their digital reinventions, businesses will begin
to scale AI across the enterprise, as some first movers are already
–– IBM Services was a key driver of IBM’s performance in 2018. demonstrating.
Forty-seven engagements worth more than $100 million Take the world’s leading banks, for example. While many
each helped major clients—like Bank of the Philippine Islands, have been applying AI to specific challenges, some first movers
Juniper Networks, Nordea, Westpac and Aditya Birla Retail— are scaling AI across the enterprise. Orange Bank, one of the
move to the next stage of their digital transformations. fastest growing mobile banks in France, now manages all customer
, service through IBM Watson. Similarly, Banco Bradesco
is now using IBM Watson to assist every member of its services
team—resolving customer inquiries in seconds with nearly
95 percent accuracy.
IBM brought AI for business into the mainstream
with the introduction of our Watson platform in 2014. Today,
IBM Watson is the most open and trusted AI for business,
available to run on any environment—on premise, and in private
and public clouds. Businesses can apply Watson to data wherever
it is hosted and infuse AI into their applications, regardless of
where they reside.
With Watson Studio, Watson Machine Learning and Watson
OpenScale, IBM delivers a suite of tools that allow enterprises
to build, deploy and manage their AI models in a hybrid cloud
environment. IBM Watson OpenScale, a first-of-a-kind platform
introduced in 2018, also enables businesses to manage their AI—
no matter where it was built or where it runs—with transparency,
explainability and bias mitigation. Addressing these factors, which
traditionally have held businesses back, is critical for scaling
AI throughout an enterprise.
Through IBM Services, we are helping our clients around
the world apply AI to core business processes and workflows,
infusing their businesses with automation, intelligence and
continuous learning to transform everything from supply chains
and HR to finance and operations.
In 2018, we also launched a new service called IBM Talent
and Transformation that addresses the often overlooked cultural
aspects of AI. This service helps our clients ensure their teams Virginia M. Rometty
have the right skills and talent—and the supporting culture and Chairman, President and
work environment—to support a new way of working that is critical Chief Executive Officer
to scaling AI for business.
Moving Mission-Critical Work to Hybrid Cloud
In the first chapter of digital reinvention, cloud deployments
largely focused on easily portable workloads for productivity and
commodity computing. This primarily was driven by user-facing
applications inspired by advances in consumer technology.
As a result, only 20 percent of enterprise workloads today have
moved to the cloud.
The remaining 80 percent of enterprise workloads provides
the real value opportunity for business—transforming mission-
critical workloads and applications for the cloud. The challenge is
that most businesses have unique regulatory or data requirements
and anywhere from five to 15 clouds across multiple providers.
