IBM lost roughly $68B (£51B) of its market value in a single session on Tuesday, its worst one-day crash since price records began in 1968, after the company admitted clients had abruptly diverted their technology budgets from software to AI hardware. For British savers, the name sits inside the Dow and the global tracker funds most pensions use, so the damage did not stay in New York.
The shares fell 25% to close at $217.05, cutting the company's valuation to just above $200B, after IBM released preliminary second-quarter figures a week ahead of schedule. Revenue of $17.2B (£12.8B), up 1%, missed the $17.86B analysts expected, and adjusted earnings of $2.93 per share came in below the $3.01 consensus; infrastructure revenue fell 7% while software grew 5%, roughly half the pace forecasts implied.
