Encore: Can IBM Beat Microsoft and Google in the Quantum Computing Race?

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

IBM has made a comeback in the past six years under the leadership of CEO Arvind Krishna. That's thanks to success in its hybrid cloud business and consulting services. But even as the company is reinventing itself again for the AI era, Krishna is already betting that quantum computing is the next big thing. Will Big Blue succeed against rivals like Microsoft and Google who are racing to make their own quantum breakthroughs? And how is the company learning from its past mistakes with Watson AI? Krishna joins the WSJ's Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins on the Bold Names podcast. To watch the video version of this episode of Bold Names, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next? What This Former USAID Head Had to Say About Elon Musk and DOGE ‘Businesses Don’t Like Uncertainty’: How Cisco Is Navigating AI and Trump 2.0 Why This Tesla Pioneer Says the Cheap EV Market 'Sucks' Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You subscribe to music, TV, your gym, maybe even your weekly flowers, so why not your car?
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0:25.1	Subscribe to smarter driving.
0:26.9	Find out more at drivepivotal.com slash radio.
0:35.4	Hey listeners, Tim Higgins here from Bold Names.
0:38.6	We've got something a little different for the holiday weekend.
0:41.4	We're re-upping our conversation with Arvin' Krishna.
0:45.2	He's the CEO of IBM.
0:47.3	He brought the company into the AI age and is betting that quantum computing is the company's next big thing.
0:54.8	We hope you enjoy this episode, and don't worry, bold names.
0:58.3	We'll be back with something new for you next week.
1:01.8	Okay, on to the show.
1:08.2	America used to run on IBM.
1:10.1	It was the backbone of business.
1:12.4	The solution is IBM.
1:14.9	But after getting that jingle stuck in the heads of millions of Americans in the late 1980s, Big Blue lost its swagger.
1:23.1	IBM is getting a lot of attention today.
1:25.6	More now on that big miss for IBM on both earnings and revenue.
	...

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