New capabilities help enterprises, governments, and service providers operationalize digital sovereignty with continuous compliance and control across hybrid environments

BOSTON, May 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — At Think 2026, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the general availability of IBM Sovereign Core, a new software platform designed to help organizations build and operate AI-ready sovereign environments and verify their control — giving enterprises and governments an end-to-end approach to digital sovereignty.

As AI adoption accelerates, digital sovereignty has become a critical requirement, extending beyond data residency to include control over infrastructure, operations, and AI systems. Organizations must balance maintaining necessary authority with the pace of innovation, while facing increasing scrutiny from regulators, auditors, and boards. Yet most platforms can struggle to provide consistent, auditable answers to these requirements — creating a gap between policy and operational reality.

“AI has made sovereignty a runtime requirement, not a policy statement. With IBM Sovereign Core, organizations 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.

Defining Digital Sovereignty for the AI Era
IBM defines digital sovereignty across four pillars:

Operational Sovereignty — Control over how environments are operatedData Sovereignty — Control over data at rest, in use, and in motionTechnology Sovereignty — Open, modular architecture that avoids vendor lock-inAI Sovereignty — Control over where models run and how inference is governed

Together, these pillars form the foundation of IBM’s unified approach to digital sovereignty—bringing control across operations, data, technology, and AI.

A Unified Approach for Digital Sovereignty
IBM Sovereign Core introduces a new model for operational sovereignty, where governance, compliance, and control are built into the system from the start to enable organizations to scale AI while maintaining their sovereignty, trust, and operational independence. IBM Sovereign Core delivers an integrated sovereign software platform that combines control plane, identity, security, compliance, and AI execution functions operate within a single deployment model.

Key capabilities include:

Customer-operated control plane enabling full authority over configuration, operations, and lifecycle managementIn-boundary identity, encryption, and data services, ensuring all access, secrets, keys, logs, and audit evidence remain under customer controlContinuous compliance monitoring and evidence generation, providing real-time audit readinessPreloaded regulatory frameworks to accelerate company defined compliance postures across regions and industriesGoverned AI execution, ensuring models, inference, and agent operations run within defined sovereign boundariesOpen, modular architecture built on open standards, supporting portability and avoiding vendor lock-in

Together, these capabilities establish a sovereign control plane that enables organizations to operate environments and verify their control across data, operations, and AI.

Continuous, Verifiable Compliance
IBM Sovereign Core enables organizations to move from static compliance models to dynamic continuous, verifiable compliance models that are verifiable. Integrated monitoring, drift detection, and automated evidence generation allow organizations to:

Validate compliance in real timeMaintain audit-ready evidence within the sovereign boundaryReduce reliance on manual validation and point-in-time audits

This ensures sovereignty is not only defined, but observable, enforceable, and provable at scale.

AI Governance Within Your Sovereign Boundary
As AI systems become central to enterprise operations, governance must extend beyond data to include models, inference, and agent behavior. IBM Sovereign Core enables organizations to deploy and operate AI models, agents, and inference workloads entirely within the sovereign boundary, ensuring their:

Control over where AI processing occursTraceability of model execution and decisionsGovernance over access, updates, and lifecycle management

This ensures that AI systems operate with accountability, transparency, and control, even in highly regulated environments.

Extensible Ecosystem and Deployment Flexibility

Built on open, enterprise-grade technologies like Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat AI, IBM Sovereign Core enables organizations to extend existing investments across hybrid and partner environments.

 IBM Sovereign Core includes an extensible catalog that organizations can curate for their own users, with their own applications, or populated with pre-vetted IBM, third-party and open source software and services from an ecosystem of software and infrastructure partners that includes: AMD, ATOS, Cegeka, Cloudera, Dell, Elastic, HCL, Intel, Mistral, MongoDB, and Palo Alto Networks.

CPU, GPU, and AI inference environments can be provisioned using standardized templates and automated configuration profiles, enabling teams to deploy and manage workloads consistently across sovereign regions while maintaining alignment to their compliance and sovereignty requirements.

Designed for Regulated Regions, Enterprises and Governments
IBM Sovereign Core is designed for organizations that require greater control, flexibility, and compliance across sensitive workloads.

Enterprises can run regulated applications and AI workloads within controlled environmentsGovernments and public sector organizations can support sovereign operations for critical servicesService providers and regional cloud operators can deliver sovereign cloud and AI services at scale

Across these use cases, IBM Sovereign Core enables organizations to innovate with AI while maintaining demonstrable authority over their systems, data, and operations. IBM Sovereign Core is now generally available.

Supporting Quotes
“Control and compliance have long been barriers to enterprise AI adoption,” said Marjorie Janiewicz, Chief Revenue Officer at Mistral AI. “IBM Sovereign Core delivers a ready-to-deploy foundation that allows our models to operate within trusted boundaries from day one, enabling organizations to accelerate AI adoption while maintaining full control over their data. We’re pleased to be the first model provider partner for Sovereign Core to certify our frontier models and support enterprise customers globally.”

“AI is reshaping how nations, governments and enterprises operate, making digital sovereignty not just a policy discussion, but a leadership priority,” said Philip Guido, EVP & Chief Commercial Officer, AMD. “As organizations deploy AI at scale, control over technology becomes increasingly critical. Together with IBM and Red Hat, we’re enabling clients to exercise greater autonomy and flexibility in their digital sovereignty choices across the full IT stack through an open, secure and transparent approach.”

“As organizations navigate increasingly complex compliance and regulatory requirements, we’re seeing strong demand for digital platforms and software that allows sensitive data to remain within controlled, compliant boundaries,” said Gaetan Willems, VP Cloud & Digital Platforms, Cegeka. “Partnering with IBM to offer a pre-architected solution through our in-country environment enables us to deliver enterprise-ready software to our clients, while allowing them to address local compliance standards.”

“As part of our strategic alliance with IBM, Deloitte is focused on enabling a Sovereign Core technology stack that supports clients in building secure, scalable, and compliant cloud ecosystems. Leveraging IBM’s platform capabilities alongside Deloitte’s deep regulatory and transformation expertise, we help organizations address critical imperatives such as data localization, security, regulatory compliance, and India’s DPDP requirements.”  — Vinay Prabhakar  Chief Commercial Officer Deloitte AP & National Sales & Alliances Leader Deloitte South Asia

“India deserves cloud infrastructure that is sovereign by design. At NxtGen, that has always been our operating principle and our promise to customers: superior performance, lower TCO, and zero trade-offs on compliance. The IBM Sovereign Core collaboration is a direct expression of that commitment, bringing secure, compliant cloud capabilities built for India’s regulatory reality.” — A S Rajgopal, MD & CEO, NxtGen

“The ability to establish—and prove—control over data, models and operations is quickly becoming a differentiator for trust, resilience and innovation in AI adoption,” said Bill Pearson, vice president of data center and AI software, Intel Data Center Group. “Establishing sovereign AI frameworks, spanning open hybrid architectures and transparent governance, requires a foundation built for performance, security, and control. Intel continues to innovate with technologies such as Intel Xeon 6 processors and Intel TDX to provide in‑use protection for data and AI workloads across environments with CPU and GPUs to support sovereign infrastructure initiatives like IBM Sovereign Core.”

Supporting Materials
Blog: IBM Sovereign Core: The new end to end system for Sovereign AI
IBM Sovereign Core Product Page
IBM Sovereign Core Ecosystem Catalog
IBM Sovereign Core Compliance Center
Statement of Direction for IBM Sovereign Core

About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

Media contact:

Kate Lehman
IBM
Kate.Lehman@ibm.com

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Rendered in a soft vanilla palette, the ensemble features a Matrix gold-encrusted vest that subtly references technological circuitry—drawing inspiration from motherboard compositions while maintaining the hand-crafted artistry central to Harbison’s work. Robotic gloves extend this narrative, creating a considered interplay between the human form and engineered intelligence. The result is a look that feels both archival and futuristic—part ceremonial dress, part AI-era couture—evoking timeless form while introducing a forward-facing perspective on identity and technology.

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Next-generation agent orchestration and agentic development give enterprises a unified way to plan, build, deploy, and govern AI agents at scaleReal-time, AI-ready data foundation gives enterprises the governed, connected information agents need to act with speed AI-powered hybrid cloud management connects infrastructure, security, and operations across hybrid environmentsBuilt-in governance and sovereignty controls let enterprises run AI at scale

BOSTON, May 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, at its annual Think conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced its most comprehensive expansion of enterprise AI and hybrid cloud management capabilities to date. Products and capabilities unveiled today include the next generation of IBM watsonx Orchestrate for multi-agent orchestration, IBM Confluent to bring real-time data to AI, IBM Concert platform for intelligent operations, and IBM Sovereign Core for operational independence.

The announcements address the defining challenge facing enterprises: many have invested heavily in AI, but only few believe it is paying off. The products and capabilities unveiled today address this gap for enterprises.

“The enterprises pulling ahead are not deploying more AI – they’re redesigning how their business operates,” said Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM. “Running AI in the enterprise requires a new operating model, and IBM is enabling organizations to manage AI-driven systems with the same rigor, governance, and scale as their most critical infrastructure.”

A New Operating Model for the Agentic Enterprise
AI requires a new operating model, built on four integrated systems working together: agents through coordinated AI that executes and adapts across the business; data through real-time, connected information that gives teams a shared view of what’s happening; automation through end-to-end infrastructure and automated workflows that scale across processes; and hybrid through operational independence for sovereignty, governance, and security that allows AI to run consistently and with controls. Each is a separate priority that enterprises are chasing. Together, they represent a fundamental shift from improving parts of the business to changing how the business operates. Today’s announcements represent the next evolution of IBM’s portfolio, to deliver against the operating model.

Agents: Orchestration and Development at Scale
As organizations move from deploying a handful of agents to managing thousands, built by different teams on different platforms, the core challenge shifts from building agents to keep them governed and auditable in near real time.

IBM is announcing the next generation of watsonx Orchestrate (available in private preview), evolving it into an agentic control plane for the multi-agent era, where organizations can deploy agents from any source with consistent policy enforcement and accountability.

Alongside watsonx Orchestrate, IBM recently announced:

IBM Bob (generally available), an agentic development partner designed for the enterprise, partners with developers to build agents with security and cost controls built in.

Data: AI-Ready Foundation
For most enterprises, data is siloed and without meaning. To effectively power agentic systems with up-to-date data, IBM is delivering, real-time, AI-ready data foundation through its recent acquisition of Confluent for real-time data streaming built on Kafka and Flink technologies, and pairing new capabilities coming to watsonx.data with a real-time context layer for AI.

Additional announcements include:

Context in watsonx.data (available in private preview) extends watsonx.data with an open, federated context layer that makes enterprise AI reason reliably over business data — applying semantic meaning, enforcing governance at runtime, and making decisions explainable. Featuring new capabilities including context, OpenRAG, and OpenSearch on watsonx.data, and Confluent’s Real-Time Context Engine.Confluent and Tableflow integration with watsonx.data (generally available) and Confluent and Flink integrations with watsonx.data deliver unified AI and analytics across all data, connecting real-time event streaming with batch workloads across the hybrid enterprise.watsonx.data GPU-accelerated Presto (available in private preview) showed the potential to significantly reduce the cost of running certain workloads and processing time on large enterprise datasets in internal benchmark testing with NVIDIA. In a proof of concept with Nestlé, the engine delivered 83% cost savings and an overall 30x price-performance improvement on a global data mart spanning 186 countries.IBM Z Database Assistant (available in private preview) gives Db2 and IMS database administrators an AI-powered workspace to monitor performance, automate routine tasks, and optimize configurations across complex IBM Z environments.HCP Terraform powered by Infragraph (available in public preview) delivers unified infrastructure visibility through a centralized, event-driven knowledge graph by connecting data across cloud environments, infrastructure-as-code workflows, security tooling, and operations platforms to help streamline operations and automate remediation.

Automation: Intelligent Infrastructure Operations
Running AI at the core of the business can make infrastructure exponentially more complex, and most enterprises are managing that complexity through fragmented tools, siloed teams, and humans serving as the connective layer between systems that were never designed to work together.

IBM is announcing IBM Concert platform (available in public preview), an AI-powered operations platform to move organizations from passive monitoring to coordinated, intelligent response. Where traditional tools capture metrics, the Concert platform brings systems together. It correlates signals together into a single view across applications, infrastructure, network, without requiring organizations to rip and replace existing tooling.

Concert delivers this through three interconnected capabilities: cross-domain understanding to eliminate silos and surface what matters most; context-driven decisions that correlate signals across risk and dependencies, so teams act from a shared, clear view; and coordinated execution that moves organizations from insight to action with built-in governance and human oversight.

The threat landscape is changing— AI can now identify and exploit vulnerabilities in hours, not days. IBM Concert Secure Coder (available in public preview) addresses this by embedding security management directly into the developer workflow. Available in IBM Bob and VS Code, it identifies and prioritizes risks as code is written, and can generate automatic remediations to fix vulnerable code, or patch OS, middleware, packages and images. This makes security continuous and proactive and can help identify vulnerabilities before they are exploited.

Additional announcements include:

HCP Terraform powered by Infragraph (available in public preview) transforms infrastructure into a live, intelligent system with real-time visibility and context-aware automation across the infrastructure lifecycle.IBM Vault 2.0 (generally available) introduces AI-driven analysis of leaked secrets for rapid triage, dynamic short-lived credentials across major cloud providers, and automated secrets rotation to reduce credential sprawl.IBM zSecure Secret Manager (planned availability June 2026) brings enhanced security automation to RACF mainframe environments, integrating with IBM Vault Self-Managed for IBM Z and LinuxONE to streamline certificate lifecycle management.

Hybrid: Operational Sovereignty
AI embedded into the core of business means it operates in the most sensitive and complex environments: regulated data, critical infrastructure, cross-border jurisdictions. For those contexts, compliance cannot be a configuration choice.

IBM is announcing the general availability of IBM Sovereign Core, a platform that embeds policy at the infrastructure runtime level, so governance can be addressed as regulatory requirements evolve, while prioritizing workload portability. IBM Sovereign Core includes an extensible catalog that organizations can curate for their own users, with their own applications, or populated with pre-vetted IBM, third-party and open-source software and services from an ecosystem of partners that includes: AMD, ATOS, Cegeka, Cloudera, Dell, Elastic, HCL, Intel, Mistral, MongoDB and Palo Alto Networks.

Built on open, enterprise-grade technologies like Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat AI, IBM Sovereign Core enables organizations to extend existing investments across hybrid and partner environments.

Supporting Materials:
Blog: Manage all your AI agents in one place with watsonx Orchestrate
Blog: Shifting from AI-assisted coding to AI-assisted delivery with IBM Bob
Blog: Real-time context for AI across hybrid environments
Blog: Introducing GPU acceleration for IBM watsonx.data
Blog: IBM Data Gate for Confluent: Turning Z data into real-time action
Blog: IBM Z Database Assistant brings intelligent operations for the AI era
Blog: Introducing IBM Concert platform: Closing the gap between insight and action
Blog: Announcing IBM Concert Secure Coder: Bringing security to the moment code is written
Blog: Introducing HCP Terraform powered by Infragraph: Now in public preview
Blog: Vault Enterprise 2.0 modernizes identity security at scale
Blog: Introducing IBM zSecure Secret Manager: Bringing automated certificate lifecycle management to IBM z/OS
Blog: IBM Sovereign Core creates AI-ready sovereign environments with verifiable control

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

Examples presented are illustrative only. Actual results will vary based on client configurations and conditions and, therefore, generally expected results cannot be provided.

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

Media contact:

Kate Lehman
IBM
Kate.Lehman@ibm.com

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