IBM posts worst day since 1968 as enterprise capex shift to AI hardware boosts Micron

Published Jul 16, 06:18 PM UTC

On July 14, 2026, IBM shares suffered their steepest single-day decline since 1968, falling 25.21% after the company pre-announced a second-quarter earnings miss. Revenue came in at $17.2 billion versus the expected $17.86 billion, and adjusted earnings per share were $2.93 against a $3.01 consensus. CEO Arvind Krishna attributed the shortfall to an unexpected 'capex reprioritization' by enterprise clients, who redirected budgets toward servers, storage, and memory in the final weeks of June to secure supply before price increases. This shift caused large software and consulting deals to fail to close on time. In contrast, Micron Technology saw its stock rise on the same news, as the demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI servers was validated. The article argues that IBM's loss is Micron's gain, signaling a structural shift in enterprise spending toward AI hardware.