IBM is planning to cut thousands of jobs in the fourth quarter of 2025.

As first reported by Bloomberg, IBM said in a statement on November 4: "We routinely review our workforce ... and at times rebalance accordingly. In the fourth quarter we are executing an action that will impact a low single-digit percentage of our global workforce."

Big Blue employed around 270,000 workers at the end of 2024, putting the cuts in the likely realm of thousands of jobs. According to Bloomberg, the cuts are part of the company's move to focus on its software segment and benefit from AI and cloud growth.

The cuts may impact some workers in the US, a spokesperson told Bloomberg, but they expect employment in the country to remain roughly the same year-over-year (YoY).

News of the cuts comes shortly after IBM released its Q3 2025 earnings results. For the latest quarter, IBM's revenue was $16.3 billion, up nine percent YoY, of which infrastructure contributed $3.6bn – up 17 percent YoY.

The largest segment was software with revenue of $7.2bn. Hybrid cloud – including Red Hat – increased 14 percent, below the expected 16 percent. Following the earnings call, IBM shares dipped around five percent, and have yet to recover.

During the third quarter, IBM experienced a cloud outage that affected 10 of its regions. The issue was addressed within two hours, but followed similar outages earlier in the year.