IBM vs NVIDIA: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
IBM reported $67.5B of revenue in FY2025 and $10.6B of net income. NVIDIA reported $215.9B of revenue in FY2026 and $120.1B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
IBM
IBM's reported revenue fell from about $80 billion in 2016-2018 to $57.4 billion in 2021, mostly because the Kyndryl spin-off and earlier divestitures removed low-margin services. Since then the slimmer company has grown each year: $60.5 billion in 2022, $61.9 billion in 2023, $62.8 billion in 2024, and $67.5 billion in 2025 (up 7.6%). FY2025 net income from continuing operations was $10.6 billion and free cash flow was $14.7 billion. In Q2 2026, revenue rose 1% to $17.16 billion: software grew 5% to $7.76 billion, consulting was flat at $5.33 billion, and infrastructure fell 7% to $3.84 billion as IBM Z sales lapped the z17 launch. Some large software deals slipped out of the quarter, so IBM cut its 2026 constant-currency revenue growth forecast to 4-5% while keeping its target of about $1 billion more free cash flow than in 2025.
NVIDIA
NVIDIA's revenue rose from $27.0B in fiscal 2023 to $60.9B in FY2024, $130.5B in FY2025 and $215.9B in FY2026, which ended January 25, 2026. FY2026 net income was $120.1B. Growth sped up again in fiscal 2027: Q1 revenue was $81.6B and Q2 (ended July 26, 2026) was $96.2B, up 106% year over year, with a 75.0% gross margin and $59.7B GAAP net income. Guidance for Q3 FY2027 is $108.0B, plus or minus 2%, and assumes no Data Center compute revenue from China. NVIDIA returned about $26.0B to shareholders in Q2. In May 2026 it raised the quarterly dividend to $0.25 from $0.01, and on September 28, 2026 it added $150B to its buyback authorization.
Revenue and profit by year
IBM
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $67.5B | $10.6B | 15.7% | +7.6% | Source |
| FY2024 | $62.8B | $6B | 9.6% | +1.4% | Source |
| FY2023 | $61.9B | $7.5B | 12.1% | +2.2% | Source |
| FY2022 | $60.5B | $1.6B | 2.7% | +5.5% | Source |
| FY2021 | $57.4B | $5.7B | 10.0% | +3.9% | Source |
| FY2020 | $55.2B | $5.6B | 10.1% | -4.4% | Source |
| FY2019 | $57.7B | $9.4B | 16.3% | -27.5% | Source |
| FY2018 | $79.6B | $8.7B | 11.0% | +0.6% | Source |
| FY2017 | $79.1B | $5.8B | 7.3% | -1.0% | Source |
| FY2016 | $79.9B | $11.9B | 14.9% | — | Source |
NVIDIA
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $215.9B | $120.1B | 55.6% | +65.5% | Source |
| FY2025 | $130.5B | $72.9B | 55.8% | +114.2% | Source |
| FY2024 | $60.9B | $29.8B | 48.8% | +125.9% | Source |
| FY2023 | $27B | $4.4B | 16.2% | +0.2% | Source |
| FY2022 | $26.9B | $9.8B | 36.2% | +61.4% | Source |
| FY2021 | $16.7B | $4.3B | 26.0% | +52.7% | Source |
| FY2020 | $10.9B | $2.8B | 25.6% | -6.8% | Source |
| FY2019 | $11.7B | $4.1B | 35.3% | +20.6% | Source |
| FY2018 | $9.7B | $3B | 31.4% | +40.6% | Source |
| FY2017 | $6.9B | $1.7B | 24.1% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
IBM
- Software~44%
Red Hat, automation, data and AI, transaction processing, security, and related software services.
- Consulting~31%
Technology consulting, business transformation, hybrid cloud implementation, and AI-enabled workflows.
- Infrastructure~23%
IBM Z, distributed infrastructure, storage, infrastructure software, maintenance, and related services.
- Financing~1%
Client financing and used equipment sales supporting enterprise technology deployments.
NVIDIA
- Data CenterDominant
GPU accelerators, AI systems, networking, and software for cloud, enterprise, and supercomputing customers.
- GamingMaterial
GeForce GPUs and gaming-platform products for PC gamers, creators, and consumer AI PCs.
- Professional Visualization
Complementary
Workstation GPUs, visualization, simulation, and Omniverse-related products.
- AutomotiveGrowth
Automotive compute, software, and autonomous-driving platforms.
- Software And ServicesGrowth
Enterprise AI software, cloud services, libraries, and platform subscriptions layered on hardware.
Business model and strategy
IBM
How it makes money
IBM makes money from four segments. Software ($29.96 billion in FY2025, about 44% of revenue) includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift, HashiCorp Terraform and Vault, Confluent data streaming (from March 2026), watsonx AI, automation, security, and mainframe transaction-processing software, sold mostly as subscriptions and recurring licenses.
Growth strategy
IBM does not try to beat AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud at selling public cloud capacity. It sells the software layer that runs across all of them and across on-premises data centers.
Competitive advantage
IBM's main advantage is how deeply it is built into the core systems of large regulated organizations. Banks, card networks, insurers, and governments run high-volume transaction processing on IBM Z, and moving those workloads is slow, risky, and expensive.
NVIDIA
How it makes money
NVIDIA is a fabless chip and systems company: it designs GPUs, CPUs, networking and software, and outsources manufacturing mainly to TSMC. Data Center is the core business, at $193.7B of FY2026 revenue (about 90%) and $89.0B of the $96.2B earned in Q2 FY2027.
Growth strategy
NVIDIA wants to sell the whole AI factory, not just accelerators. It ships a new architecture roughly every year: Blackwell, then Blackwell Ultra, then Vera Rubin, which reached full production in mid-2026. Each rack combines GPUs, Vera CPUs, NVLink, Spectrum-6 switches and BlueField DPUs.
Competitive advantage
NVIDIA's lead comes from three things working together. CUDA has been in use since 2006 and much of the AI software stack is tuned for it. NVIDIA sells full systems that tie compute, NVLink and networking into one rack. Its scale also gets it priority access to TSMC wafers and high-bandwidth memory.
Questions about IBM vs NVIDIA
Which company has higher revenue — International Business Machines Corporation or NVIDIA Corporation?
International Business Machines Corporation reported $67.5B (FY2025), while NVIDIA Corporation reported $215.9B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, NVIDIA Corporation is the larger business, with International Business Machines Corporation reporting a smaller revenue base. Note: these are from different fiscal years and are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
What is the market cap of International Business Machines Corporation vs NVIDIA Corporation?
International Business Machines Corporation's market capitalisation stands at $216.3B, while NVIDIA Corporation's is $5.45T. NVIDIA Corporation carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to International Business Machines Corporation.
Which is more financially efficient — International Business Machines Corporation or NVIDIA Corporation?
International Business Machines Corporation generates $256k / employee in revenue per employee, while NVIDIA Corporation generates $5.14M / employee. NVIDIA Corporation shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do International Business Machines Corporation and NVIDIA Corporation make money?
International Business Machines Corporation and NVIDIA Corporation generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. International Business Machines Corporation: IBM makes money from four segments. NVIDIA Corporation: NVIDIA is a fabless chip and systems company: it designs GPUs, CPUs, networking and software, and outsources manufacturing mainly to TSMC.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — International Business Machines Corporation or NVIDIA Corporation?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, International Business Machines Corporation trades at 3.2x P/S and NVIDIA Corporation at 25.2x P/S. NVIDIA Corporation commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to International Business Machines Corporation. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is International Business Machines Corporation bigger than NVIDIA Corporation?
By last reported revenue, NVIDIA Corporation ($215.9B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to International Business Machines Corporation ($67.5B (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the IBM vs NVIDIA overview