# Arvind Krishna

> Arvind Krishna is IBM’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. An electrical engineer educated at IIT Kanpur and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he joined IBM in 1990, led IBM Research and its cloud and cognitive software business, and helped architect the $34 billion Red Hat acquisition before becoming CEO in April 2020. His strategy centres on enterprise AI and hybrid cloud, alongside continued investment in quantum computing.

- **Role:** Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer at IBM
- **Organizations:** IBM, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Northrop Grumman, U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum, The Economic Club of New York
- **From:** West Godavari district, India
- **Nationality:** American (Indian-born)
- **Education:** BTech, Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, MS, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- **Known for:** Principal architect of IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat., Led IBM Research and the Cloud and Cognitive Software business before becoming CEO., Illinois ECE Distinguished Alumni Award, 2007.

## Career timeline

- **1990** — Joined IBM at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center.
- **2007** — Received the Illinois ECE Distinguished Alumni Award; his responsibilities included database servers and worldwide information management software development.
- **2015** — Became director of IBM Research.
- **2017–2020** — Led IBM Cloud and Cognitive Software, according to IBM’s current director biography.
- **2019** — IBM completed the $34 billion Red Hat acquisition, which he helped architect.
- **2020** — Became IBM CEO on April 6, succeeding Ginni Rometty.
- **2021** — Became IBM chairman effective January 1; IBM completed the Kyndryl separation in November.
- **2022** — Became a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
- **2025** — Received a TIME100 AI Impact Award; inducted into the Grainger Engineering Hall of Fame on November 14.
- **2026** — IBM completed the Confluent acquisition on March 17.

## Achievements

- Principal architect of IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat.
- Led IBM Research and the Cloud and Cognitive Software business before becoming CEO.
- Illinois ECE Distinguished Alumni Award, 2007.
- IIT Kanpur Distinguished Alumnus Award for Professional Excellence, 2019.
- Grainger Engineering Hall of Fame inductee, 2025.
- TIME100 AI Impact Award recipient, 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — At IBM’s October 5 analyst meeting, Krishna discussed persistent infrastructure cost pressures and acknowledged that integrating IBM’s portfolio into coherent platforms remains work in progress. The discussion was reported by interviewer David Vellante on October 19.
- **2026-04** — In prepared annual shareholder remarks, Krishna described IBM as software-led, with hybrid cloud, AI, IBM Z infrastructure and an emerging quantum platform.
- **2026-03** — IBM completed the acquisition of Confluent for approximately $11 billion in enterprise value.
- **2026-01** — A McKinsey interview covered his approach to volatility, IBM’s internal AI deployment and the longer quantum computing horizon.

## Links

- Website: https://www.ibm.com/about/arvind
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvindkrishna/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/ArvindKrishna

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Last updated: 2026-10-21