IBM, The 'O.G.' AI, Sparks Excitement For Watson's New Skills

IBM Common Stock IBM, also known as Big Blue, left investors with a lot to consider after the company issued its second quarter earnings on Wednesday and discussed its new artificial intelligence (AI) platform, watsonx AI.

IBM's subtle launch into AI immediately makes it a heavyweight contender, and puts the company in the race alongside OpenAI, Microsoft Corporation MSFT, Apple Inc AAPL, Nvidia Corporation NVDA, and Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL.

Earnings By The Numbers: The Armonk, New York-based company reported earnings of $2.18 per share, beating the $2.01 Street estimate. However, revenue figures slightly missed the mark, coming in at $15.47 billion against a $15.57 billion consensus estimate.

Despite the slight miss, IBM’s year to date net cash from operating activities swelled $1.8 billion to $6.4 billion.

IBM expects a solid full-year 2023 free cash flow of $10.5 billion, and as of the end of Q2, the company had $16.3 billion in cash and marketable securities, up $7.5 billion from year-end 2022.

In the earnings print, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna highlighted the company's hybrid cloud and AI technologies, and consulting capabilities as key factors behind its transformative operations.

“We are particularly excited about the response to the recently launched watsonx AI platform,” Krishna said.

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Watsonx AI, A Game Changer In The Enterprise AI Arena: IBM’s new AI platform, watsonx, is aiming to give businesses the power of generative AI workloads and large language models (LLMs) in one place.

Saying the name "watsonx" 17 times during the earnings call, Krishna said the technology would allow businesses to utilize their data to enhance productivity and solve complex business problems.

“Watsonx delivers the value of foundation models to the enterprise, enabling them to be more productive,” the CEO said.

Already, IBM’s clients, including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd SSNLF, Citigroup Inc C, NatWest Group PLC – ADR NWG, and SAP SE SAP, are exploring the benefits of the new platform, embedding it into operations and solutions to leverage LLMs for various applications.

Watsonx stands apart with its ability to leverage a range of models — be they open-source technologies, IBM’s models, or those co-created with IBM — to best suit a customer’s needs, the company said during the call.

IBM disclosed the formation of a new “Center of Excellence” for generative AI, employing over 1,000 consultants endowed with specific expertise in generative AI.

“Watsonx is just one of many new technology innovations,” IBM said, highlighting recent products like OpenShift AI and IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh to manage the lifecycle of AI models and streamline application-centric connectivity for various environments.

IBM Price action: Shares of IBM are trading 2.36% higher to $138.67 on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro.

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