IBM launches Sovereign Core software to help organisations address the digital sovereignty imperative

IBM has announced the launch of IBM Sovereign Core, which it describes as the industry’s first AI-ready, sovereign-enabled software designed to help enterprises, governments and service providers build, deploy and manage sovereign environments for AI workloads.

The new offering is aimed at organisations facing mounting pressure to retain control over their technology infrastructure amid tightening regulations, geopolitical considerations and growing governance requirements around AI. As AI adoption accelerates, particularly with large language models and agentic workflows processing sensitive data, the question of who controls data, infrastructure and operations has become central to enterprise strategy.

Beyond data residency

IBM said digital sovereignty extends well beyond data residency, encompassing operational control, access governance, workload execution and the jurisdiction under which AI models operate. However, many organisations currently lack a modern, compliant destination to re-host applications under sovereign control—especially AI-enabled applications with continuous compliance and audit requirements.

Industry analysts expect this ...