IBM CEO Krishna says Iran, other uncertainty is weighing on company's outlook

ibm beat q1 earnings estimates but kept its outlook cautious, with ceo arvind krishna citing geopolitical uncertainty from the iran war and europe's economic jadedness as reasons. revenue was $15.92b, topping the $15.62b consensus, and adjusted eps was $1.91, 10 cents above expectations. software led the beat, with red hat growth rebounding to 10%. krishna said the conflict could drive up oil prices and inflation, potentially causing consumers to spend less. that would hit ibm's clients like walmart, which could then cut their own costs, including tech spending. he noted ibm's middle east business still performed well despite the tensions. on ai, krishna downplayed the shock from anthropic's new mythos model, which can find security vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed. he suggested others will copy and improve on it soon. the model's release did trigger a meeting between treasury secretary scott bessent, fed chair jerome powell, and top bank chiefs over ai cyber concerns.