There was a time when IBM was an unrivaled giant. Today it is the worst major tech company in the world

IBM suffered its worst trading day since 1968 in July 2026, after warning on weak second-quarter results and seeing its stock plunge 25.21%.

The company’s shares are down about 30% in 2026, despite IBM having ended 2025 with 7.6% revenue growth.

The selloff renewed debate over IBM’s long decline in tech leadership and how it lost ground to more innovative rivals.

Its past choices around the PC era, including the rise of MS-DOS and Windows, are being revisited as a turning point that helped Microsoft overtake IBM.