IBM has signed a partnership with OpenAI to expand corporate clients' access to the artificial intelligence company's models and tools. IBM and OpenAI did not disclose the terms of the agreement. The alliance comes less than a year after IBM's partnership with Anthropic and opens an additional channel for OpenAI to reach large enterprises through IBM's global consulting business. TechCrunch reported on Thursday (13).
Agreement details
The two companies will jointly promote their AI offerings and develop solutions for financial services, the public sector, telecommunications and retail. IBM will integrate OpenAI's latest models, including GPT-5.6, Codex and ChatGPT Work, into IBM Consulting Advantage, its AI platform for consultants.
Mike Healy, managing partner at IBM Consulting, said IBM will create a specialized OpenAI unit within its consulting arm and will train and certify tens of thousands of consultants in the coming months, mainly through employee reskilling. The training will focus on Codex, API, cybersecurity and OpenAI consulting solutions. The company will also form a group of deployment specialists trained by OpenAI's partner network.
Strategy and competition
The partnership is OpenAI's latest move to expand its enterprise business through consultancies and technology partners, as competition among AI developers shifts from building more powerful models to prioritizing customer acquisition and deployments at scale. OpenAI had already announced partnerships with Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.
For IBM, the agreement expands its range of partnerships in advanced models. The company adopts a model-agnostic strategy, combining its Granite family with third-party offerings, and positions itself as an integrator of multiple models through the watsonx platform and its global consulting business.
Financial context
The partnership comes after IBM cut its revenue forecast for 2026 last month, following quarterly results below expectations. On the latest earnings call, CEO Arvind Krishna said AI remains a long-term growth driver and that its adoption complements, rather than replaces, demand for the mainframe business.
In June, IBM and OpenAI collaborated on the OpenAI Daybreak Cyber Partner Program, aimed at cybersecurity. The new agreement expands the relationship by integrating OpenAI's models into IBM Autonomous Security, the company's multi-agent security service.
