Aramco and IBM have announced an intended collaboration on opportunities to advance AI, agentic AI, automation, material science and other mutually-agreed domains in the industrial sector. The collaboration builds on a longstanding relationship and strong alignment around innovation, operational excellence, and solving complex, large-scale challenges.
The announcement was made at THINK Boston, IBM's global flagship
event, in the presence of Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM, Sami
Al Ajmi, Senior VP of Digital & Information Technology at Aramco,
along with senior executives and other distinguished guests.
 |
| Credit: Connie Zhou for IBM. Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM (right) and Sami Al Ajmi, Senior VP of Digital & Information Technology at Saudi Aramco (left) discuss accelerating AI and innovation across Saudi Arabia at Think 2026. |
The collaboration will focus on exploring the creation of practical, high-impact solutions, combining IBM's enterprise-grade technology platforms, consulting industry expertise and research innovation capabilities with Aramco's scale of industrial operations, extensive data assets, and energy-specific expertise and knowledge built over 90 years.
Together, the organisations will explore applications of AI, hybrid cloud, and advanced technologies across industrial and energy systems, including industrial AI use cases in mission-critical environments. These efforts aim to leverage the organisations' complementary strengths to unlock greater value and accelerate innovation at scale.
Al Ajmi said: "Technology and innovation are central to Aramco's long-term strategy. This collaboration with IBM enables us to assess how industrial AI and other mutually-agreed domains can further enhance operational excellence and resilience, while reinforcing our leadership in Industrial AI—particularly in reliability, safety, and mission-critical environments."
"Combining Innovation and advanced technology represents the next frontier in enterprise transformation," said, Saad Toma, GM, IBM Middle East and Africa.
"By collaborating with Aramco, we are exploring how emerging technologies are addressing some of the world's most complex industrial challenges, while reinforcing our shared commitment to continuous investment in innovation."
Aramco and IBM have been working together since 1947. The relationship has spanned successive waves of technology—from foundational systems to modern digital platforms—driven by a shared focus on innovation, investment, and delivering impact at scale.
The planned collaboration is subject to the parties reaching definitive agreements.
At Think 2026, IBM also announced the general availability of IBM Sovereign Core, a new software platform designed to help organisations build and operate AI-ready sovereign environments and verify their control.
"AI has made sovereignty a runtime requirement, not a policy statement. With IBM Sovereign Core, organisations don't have to choose between deploying AI at speed and verifying their control. Sovereignty shouldn't be a constraint on innovation — with the right software foundation, it's an enabler of it," said Dinesh Nirmal, SVP, IBM Software.
IBM further announced new capabilities for IBM Enterprise Advantage, an asset-based consulting service that helps clients build and operate their own hybrid-AI platforms. Updates across IBM Consulting Advantage, its internal hybrid-AI platform for delivering consulting services to clients were also shared.
"Organisations aren't just trying to scale AI, they're trying to scale it with control across multiple AI stacks and within their business context," said Mohamad Ali, SVP and Head of IBM Consulting.
"With Enterprise Advantage, we help clients build their own internal AI platforms with sovereignty at the core, and with Consulting Advantage, we use that same approach to deliver our services to clients. Both are powered by IBM watsonx."
Hashtags: #IBMThink, #IBMThink2026
No comments:
Post a Comment