IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said growing concerns over advanced AI models such as Anthropic’s Mythos are prompting companies to pause technology deals and rethink how much they need to spend on cybersecurity. His comments came as IBM released preliminary second-quarter results that missed Wall Street expectations, sending the company’s shares down as much as 26% and wiping out nearly $70 billion in market value. At the same time, cybersecurity stocks surged, as investors bet businesses would increase spending on cyber protection in response to the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
IBM CEO says Mythos AI is making businesses rethink cybersecurity budgets
Speaking to CNBC, Aravind Krishna said some large customer deals were delayed toward the end of the quarter as companies reassessed their spending priorities. “Mythos is making people pause to say, wait, how much do I need to spend on cyber? They’re pausing on new deals until they know,” Krishna said.He added that IBM does not believe AI is disrupting its software business. “We don’t see our software being disrupted by AI at all.” In its preliminary results, IBM said customers shifted spending away from some of its products and instead invested more in AI infrastructure, including servers, storage and memory.Krishna also pointed to “rapidly-evolving, industry-wide cybersecurity concerns” as another factor affecting customer spending.
Cybersecurity stocks rally as IBM shares tumble
Following Krishna’s comments, cybersecurity companies saw sharp gains in the stock market. As reported by CNBC, CrowdStrike jumped 12%, while Okta and Netskope rose about 11% each. Shares of SailPoint, Zscaler, SentinelOne and Palo Alto Networks gained around 7%.Meanwhile, IBM shares fell sharply after the company reported preliminary second-quarter revenue of $17.2 billion, below analysts’ expectations of $17.9 billion.In a letter to investors, Krishna acknowledged the company’s performance. “We did not adapt and move quickly enough, and numerous large deals failed to close on the timelines we expected, driving the majority of our shortfall.”He added: “These are not excuses, but they are realities.”
