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Luke Kawa

IBM falls because clients like AI way more than consultants

Shares of IBM fell as much as 8% in after-market trading after Big Blue posted sales figures modestly below Wall Street’s estimates before paring those losses to 2.8% as of 5:20 p.m. ET.

Within its business units, this was a tale of two top lines: sales in the Data & AI segments of its software business were up 5%; consulting revenues were down a little, with technology consulting shrinking the most. The good news: at least on the surface, AI-linked opportunities are growing at a rapid clip.

“Our generative-AI book of business now stands at more than $3 billion, up more than $1 billion quarter to quarter,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM’s chairman, president, and CEO.

(IBM’s definition for its AI book of business may be a bit expansive, but hey, that’s their call.)

Separately, CFO Jim Kavanaugh told Bloomberg that generative AI is somewhat cannibalizing traditional consulting, and budgets in the latter aren’t really going up.

Little wonder that traditional consulting firms are pivoting hard to hybrid AI solutions in a bid to maintain their value proposition.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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