IBM is not the same as it was 100 years ago, but its commitment to innovation remains intact. This 2026 marks a century of the Blue Giant’s presence in our country and during this time, the North American multinational has been continuously reinventing itself.
What was the queen company of the PC, which was present in all the Olympic Games or which has been involved in historical moments such as the 1978 Constitution referendum or the digitization of the Archive of the Indies and the creation of the National Supercomputing Center is now committed to combining its traditional legacy with a strategy very focused on the hybrid cloud, Artificial Intelligence, automation, security and quantum computing.
As Horacio Morell, president of the multinational in our country, explained in a press conference on the occasion of the commemoration, IBM is experiencing a new reinvention focused on fewer areas of leadership, more openness to the ecosystem and a more experiential relationship with clients.
Morell presented IBM as “a technological innovation company aimed at companies, governments or institutions” and stressed that the company has been forced to reinvent itself “many times” in its 100 years of history in our country. As he explained, the company’s great change was accelerated with the acquisition of Red Hat, which allowed them to address the present and future of technology from open-source.
The commitment to science
Morell stressed IBM’s historic commitment to science and research and recalled that the company invests 7.5 billion dollars in science, has almost 4,000 scientists, 16 laboratories and accumulates more than 150,000 patents, which is an industrial record. He also noted that IBM not only innovates, but seeks to do so without depending on the economic cycle, as part of its long-term strategy.
One of IBM’s main bets for the future is quantum computing, where the company’s vision involves an open and collaborative model. As Morell explained, “IBM already has 80 quantum computers, a network of 800,000 people who contribute to improving the technology and a private network of about 300 clients, including research centers, large companies, banks and telecoms. This combination is making it possible to accelerate the development of a technology that is still in the expansion phase.”
Customer relationship
Likewise, Morell described an important shift in the way of working with clients. Instead of starting with technology, IBM first poses the business problem and then co-creates a solution with the client in a few weeks. “When the client says, this is what I want, then we are already talking about making investments,” he summarized, defending that this method reduces risk and improves adoption.
He also explained the cultural change that has occurred within the company, with the “zero client” program as the spearhead and with which IBM uses its own tools to transform itself. He assured that the project has already generated 4.5 billion dollars of productivity improvements in 2025 and that the company has committed to adding another 1 billion this year. As he explained, “this type of transformation only works if technology is combined with organizational change.”
The longest part of the meeting was dedicated to the history of IBM in Spain, which is celebrating 100 years compared to 115 for the global company. Morell began with a historical anecdote about Alfonso That stage, he explained, marked the “mechanization” of business processes.
He then reviewed the arrival of the mainframe and its impact on entire sectors. He recalled that IBM opted in the 60s for this technology, which transformed industries such as aviation, banking and transportation. In Spain, he cited Renfe as the first client of that technological generation and defined the mainframe as “the invisible technology” or “the nervous system of the global digital system.”
He also recalled the company’s role in the adoption of the PC, ATMs, POS terminals and the barcode, inventions that contributed to the digitalization of daily life and commerce. In his story, the company not only accompanied the modernization of companies, but was behind several technological leaps that affected society in general.
The commitment to Spain continues
In recent years, IBM has reinforced its presence in Spain with very specific projects. Morell mentioned as some of the most important the opening of the Cloud region, which he described as “the largest investment in the history of IBM in its 100 years in the country.” He also highlighted the new Digital Sales center in Valencia, which is designed to serve Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in addition to being a talent incubator.
The other major project is the San Sebastián quantum computing center, the sixth that IBM opens in the world after the United States, Canada, Korea, Japan and Germany. Morell defined it as “an open ecosystem with more than 20 research centers and universities involved, as well as industrial applications in development.”
Finally, the president of IBM highlighted the current convergence of three computing paradigms: classical, artificial intelligence and quantum. Morell maintained that “this decade is historic because, for the first time, these three layers are maturing at the same time. IBM’s vision is to build a supercomputer of the future in which these three capabilities work in a complementary way.”
