IBM vs Oracle: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
IBM reported $67.5B of revenue in FY2025 and $10.6B of net income. Oracle reported $67.4B of revenue in FY2026 and $17.1B 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.
Oracle
Oracle's revenue grew from $39.1 billion in FY2020 to $57.4 billion in FY2025 and $67.36 billion in FY2026, when net income was $17.09 billion. Growth is now driven by cloud: Q1 FY2027 cloud revenue (IaaS plus SaaS) was $11.6 billion, up 62%, and operating cash flow was a record $23 billion for the quarter. The other side of the ledger is capex. FY2026 capital spending of $55.7 billion pushed free cash flow negative, and Oracle has funded the gap with bond issuance and equity sales. Management guides to at least $90 billion of FY2027 revenue and non-GAAP EPS of $8.10.
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 |
Oracle
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $67.4B | $17.1B | 25.4% | +17.3% | Source |
| FY2025 | $57.4B | $12.4B | 21.7% | +8.4% | Source |
| FY2024 | $53B | $10.5B | 19.8% | +6.0% | Source |
| FY2023 | $50B | $8.5B | 17.0% | +17.7% | Source |
| FY2022 | $42.4B | $6.7B | 15.8% | +4.8% | Source |
| FY2021 | $40.5B | $13.7B | 34.0% | +3.6% | Source |
| FY2020 | $39.1B | $10.1B | 25.9% | -1.1% | Source |
| FY2019 | $39.5B | $11.1B | 28.1% | +0.3% | Source |
| FY2018 | $39.4B | $3.6B | 9.1% | +4.2% | Source |
| FY2017 | $37.8B | $9.5B | 25.0% | — | 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.
Oracle
- Cloud Services and License SupportLargest
OCI, SaaS, database services, and recurring support revenue.
- Cloud License and On-Premise LicenseMaterial
New licenses and cloud license rights for enterprise software.
- ServicesMaterial
Consulting, support, and implementation work.
- HardwareSmaller
Exadata, engineered systems, and related hardware products.
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.
Oracle
How it makes money
Oracle sells to businesses and governments, not consumers. Its largest revenue line is cloud services and license support: customers pay recurring fees for OCI compute, storage, GPUs and database services, for Fusion Cloud ERP, HCM, SCM and NetSuite subscriptions, and for annual support on licensed Oracle Database and middleware.
Growth strategy
Oracle's growth plan rests on renting AI training and inference capacity at very large scale. It is building data centers for OpenAI under the Stargate program (a partnership OpenAI describes as over $300 billion across five years and up to 4.5 gigawatts), and it also serves xAI, Meta, NVIDIA and AMD workloads.
Competitive advantage
Oracle's edge comes from its installed base. Oracle Database runs core financial, telecom and government systems, and moving those workloads is slow, expensive and risky, which keeps support revenue recurring. OCI adds a price-performance pitch built on bare-metal servers and RDMA networking for large GPU clusters, and Oracle can offer the same database inside rival clouds.
Questions about IBM vs Oracle
Which company has higher revenue — International Business Machines Corporation or Oracle Corporation?
International Business Machines Corporation reported $67.5B (FY2025), while Oracle Corporation reported $67.4B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, International Business Machines Corporation is the larger business, with Oracle 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 Oracle Corporation?
International Business Machines Corporation's market capitalisation stands at $216.3B, while Oracle Corporation's is $393.6B. Oracle 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 Oracle Corporation?
International Business Machines Corporation generates $256k / employee in revenue per employee, while Oracle Corporation generates $478k / employee. Oracle 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 Oracle Corporation make money?
International Business Machines Corporation and Oracle Corporation generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. International Business Machines Corporation: IBM makes money from four segments. Oracle Corporation: Oracle sells to businesses and governments, not consumers.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — International Business Machines Corporation or Oracle Corporation?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, International Business Machines Corporation trades at 3.2x P/S and Oracle Corporation at 5.8x P/S. Oracle 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 Oracle Corporation?
By last reported revenue, International Business Machines Corporation ($67.5B (FY2025)) is the larger company compared to Oracle Corporation ($67.4B (FY2026)). 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 Oracle overview