IBM shares rallied strongly in morning trading, rising +5.9% after a weekend surge in social-media interest surrounding a December 2025 White House business roundtable clip. In the video, President Trump referred to CEO Arvind Krishna as "a legend," saying Krishna had lifted the company's stock "from a rather low price to a very nice price" and adding he would not call the stock expensive because Krishna would likely argue it had room to move higher. By Saturday the clip had drawn significant attention online, with posts amassing over 700,000 views.
That viral moment dovetailed with new institutional endorsements. Barclays initiated coverage of IBM with an "Overweight" rating and set a $350 price target, pointing to the company’s software segment - which accounts for nearly half of IBM’s revenue - and its deep relationships with large, regulated corporate customers. Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating and reiterated a $320 price target; analyst Dan Ives described IBM as the center of a "$1 trillion value creation engine." These analyst moves arrived as IBM was already experiencing its biggest weekly percentage increase since April 2001, a run-up that followed a series of announcements related to quantum computing.
Broader industry dynamics contributed to the momentum. Software stocks climbed on Monday after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sought to allay concerns that advanced AI tools would displace traditional software makers. Speaking at the Computex trade show in Taipei, Huang said, "This is actually an incredible time to be a software company," and argued that rather than rendering software firms obsolete, AI agents "are going to use more tools than ever." In the wake of that keynote, IBM was reported to have jumped as much as 12% in line with wider sector gains. By contrast, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were trading near flat, which highlighted IBM’s pronounced outperformance relative to the broader market.
From a technical perspective, the stock’s 14-day Relative Strength Index moved into deep overbought territory after the rapid advance from its May lows near $212 - a level the article notes sits well below IBM’s 52-week low of $212.34 - underscoring how quickly investor sentiment has shifted in recent weeks.
The confluence of a viral presidential endorsement, fresh bullish institutional research, and a broader sector rally tied to AI commentary produced a layered set of catalysts that helped lift the stock. Market participants tracked both the social-media-driven attention and the analyst endorsements as immediate drivers of demand, while continued enthusiasm around quantum-computing developments appeared to provide a separate, fundamental narrative for the gains.
Investors and observers should note that the stock’s strong short-term momentum has pushed technical indicators into overbought ranges following a substantial recovery from spring lows.