IBM renting GPUs from rivals rather than packing ‘em into its own cloud

If IBM reveals improved profit margins or a fresh round of redundancies, AI may be the reason, because Big Blue today revealed that its own “Project Bob” developer assistance tools have improved productivity among its coders by 45 percent.

Big Blue boss Arvind Krishna revealed that figure in prepared remarks [PDF] delivered as part of the venerable company’s Q3 2025 results, which included revenue of $16.33 billion and net income of $1.75 billion, representing nine percent year-over-year growth and a nice change from the $330 million loss posted for Q3 2024.

Krishna pointed to IBM winning $9.5 billion of work related to generative AI as a fine achievement, and a 59 percent year-over-year jump for mainframe revenue – a result that reflects the recent launch of the new Z17 machines. The debut of revised big iron helped IBM’s infrastructure revenue to grow 15 percent year-over-year. AI ...