PeopleofSuperintelligence

Lab leader

Arvind Krishna

As of October 2026, Arvind Krishna is IBM’s chairman, president, and CEO, guiding the company’s enterprise AI work. He studied electrical engineering at IIT Kanpur and Illinois, joined IBM in 1990, and coauthored work on wireless networking. At IBM Research, he described Green Horizons’ use of cognitive computing and IoT for environmental decisions, then led software groups and drove IBM’s $34 billion Red Hat acquisition in 2019. IBM announced watsonx in 2023 as an AI and data platform for enterprise foundation models, and Krishna argued for smaller, purpose-built models at IBM Think in 2025. TIME included him in its 2026 TIME100 AI list.

Now at
IBM
Works
35
Citations
1,266
h-index
13

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Arvind Krishna

Timeline

  1. 1985–1991

    Learning electrical engineering

    He earned a BTech in electrical engineering at IIT Kanpur in 1985, an MS at Illinois in 1987, and a PhD there in 1991.

  2. 1990s

    Researching wireless networks

    He joined IBM in 1990, held technical research roles, and coauthored the 1996 paper “Wireless LANs and mobile networking: Standards and future directions.”

  3. 2015

    Forecasting cleaner air

    As IBM Research’s senior vice president and director, he described Green Horizons, which applied cognitive computing, IoT, and analytics to environmental decisions.

  4. 2019

    Expanding into hybrid cloud

    After leading IBM Research and Cloud and Cognitive Software, he drove IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, which helped define the hybrid-cloud market.

  5. 2023

    Introducing watsonx

    IBM announced watsonx in 2023 as an AI and data platform to help enterprises scale foundation models with trusted data. Krishna said foundation models made business AI more powerful.

  6. May 2025

    Fitting smaller models to business

    At IBM Think, he argued that enterprises need smaller, purpose-built AI models for specific business tasks.

  7. 2026

    A TIME100 AI leader

    TIME included him in its 2026 TIME100 AI list as IBM’s chairman and CEO, with a focus on smaller, specialized models for enterprise applications.

  8. As of October 2026

    Setting IBM’s AI agenda

    He is IBM’s chairman, president, and CEO. At Think 2026, he outlined an enterprise AI model built around orchestration of agents, AI-ready data, and governance.

Sources and credits

Photo: World Economic Forum, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY 3.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Arvind Krishna - Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering ctcase.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Wireless LANs and mobile networking: Standards and future directions research.ibm.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Krishna, Arvind | Electrical & Computer Engineering | Illinois ece.illinois.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. IBM Expands Green Horizons Initiative Globally To Address Pressing Environmental and Pollution Challenges uk.newsroom.ibm.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Arvind Krishna | IBM ibm.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. IBM Unveils the Watsonx Platform to Power Next-Generation Foundation Models for Business newsroom.ibm.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. ‘There is no law of computer science that says that AI must remain expensive and must remain large’: IBM CEO Arvind Krishna bangs the drum for smaller AI models | IT Pro itpro.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. 2026 TIME100 AI: Arvind Krishna, Anima Anandkumar, Vivek Raghavan among 9 Indian names shaping AI - The Times of India timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  9. Think 2026: IBM Delivers the Blueprint for the AI Operating Model as the AI Divide Widens newsroom.ibm.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  10. Arvind Krishna - IBM Newsroom newsroom.ibm.com. Checked 14 October 2026.