Can IBM's Sovereign Core Software Launch Boost Its Shares?

International Business Machines Corporation IBM recently unveiled Sovereign Core, an AI-ready software designed to help enterprises, governments and service providers build and manage secure, self-controlled technology environments with sovereignty at its core. As regulations increase and AI use expands, this software becomes essential for organizations to maintain full control over their systems, ensuring security, compliance, and trustworthy governance.

Built on Red Hat’s open-source foundation, IBM’s Sovereign Core provides organizations with built-in control over their platforms and AI systems, using always-on security, local control planes, and continuous observance without relying on contracts or external providers. It also supports secure, scalable AI operations by enabling organizations to run and govern AI models locally while efficiently managing identity, access, and compliance across large environments.

The software also offers a user-friendly portal, flexible hardware options, and automated platform operations to simplify management. It helps keep all authentication, authorization, encryption keys and access management within the sovereign boundary, thus offering full control over critical data and infrastructure.

How Are Competitors Performing in the AI Software Development?

IBM faces competition from Microsoft Corporation MSFT and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL. Microsoft is actively advancing AI software development by building a new Core AI platform and tools division to unify and accelerate its end-to-end AI stack for developers and enterprises. The company continues expanding its AI offerings, like new capabilities in Microsoft Copilot and its own in-house AI models to enhance productivity and personalization across apps and workflows. Microsoft recently launched the Microsoft Elevate for Educators program, which includes new AI-powered tools to help teachers and students learn and use AI more effectively in education.

Google is rapidly strengthening its AI ecosystem with advanced models like Gemini, which support coding, content creation, and multimodal tasks, along with platforms, such as Vertex AI and Firebase Studio, that help developers easily build, deploy, and manage AI applications. Google is also creating advanced AI tools like Antigravity coding platform to help write and test code, supporting developers and startups in scaling their AI products worldwide.

IBM’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

IBM shares have gained 33.8% over the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 92.7%.

From a valuation standpoint, IBM trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 3.95, below the industry average.

Earnings estimates for 2025 have remained static at $11.38 over the past 60 days, while the same for 2026 have rose 0.3% to $12.19.

IBM currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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