When one of Wall Street's oldest tech giants publishes a weak report and its shares decline, the initial reaction of many market participants is understandably one of worry. But if we look deeper into IBM's (IBM) recent preliminary results, we do not see just the difficulties of a single corporation, but an important leading indicator for the entire stock market. This indicator points to the fact that a second, larger wave of investment in artificial intelligence (AI) has already begun.
Let's break down what exactly is going on with IBM — and why it's very important for the semiconductor sector, server manufacturers, and the traditional software segment as a whole.