IT Consulting & Other Services

IBM's Software business slowed in the second quarter of 2026, with revenues up 5% year over year to $7.8 billion but organic revenue growth flat, as weakness in the Transaction Processing business drove an 8% revenue decline there. The company attributed the shortfall to customers shifting capital spending toward servers, storage and memory to secure supply-constrained infrastructure ahead of anticipated price increases, which left several large software deals unclosed within the expected timeframe. Still, roughly 80% of annual Software revenues is recurring, and Red Hat remained a key growth engine, with Hybrid Cloud revenues up 11% and OpenShift ARR reaching $2.2 billion, while the Data business grew 19% year over year. The acquisitions of HashiCorp and Confluent strengthened IBM's automation, data and hybrid-cloud capabilities, and Software segment profit rose 9% to $2.5 billion with segment margin up 110 basis points to 32.2%. IBM faces competition from Microsoft, whose Productivity & Business Processes segment generated $37.8 billion in June-quarter revenues, up 14% year over year, and from Oracle, whose cloud revenues surged 47% in USD and 46% in cc to $9.9 billion even as its Software revenues fell 2% to $6.8 billion.

International Business Machines said its subsidiary Anderon won a US$1b federal award to build a U.S. quantum chip foundry, alongside a further US$1b IBM commitment to the project. The planned facility is described as the first stand-alone quantum wafer foundry in the U.S., focused on quantum chip manufacturing under CHIPS Act funding. IBM also announced a partnership with regulatory intelligence provider CUBE to integrate real time global AI rule monitoring into watsonx.governance. The Anderon quantum foundry award and CUBE tie up together represent a US$2b quantum and governance push by the company.

IBM secured a finalized $1 billion award from the Commerce Department for its Anderon subsidiary, which is now operating a 300-millimeter quantum-wafer foundry in Albany, New York. IBM is committing another $1 billion of its own capital to the project, bringing newly disclosed commitments to $2 billion, with the federal government covering half of that total. Initial wafers have already entered production at the facility, which is designed to manufacture technology for superconducting qubits, input-output signaling and readout components, with additional quantum architectures expected to follow. The funding split reduces how much IBM must fund itself while potentially turning Anderon into manufacturing infrastructure for outside quantum-chip designers. IBM shares gained approximately 0.2% to $237.87 Thursday morning, about 2% below the $242.72 GF Value estimate, though IBM has not yet disclosed customers, purchase commitments, wafer volumes or expected Anderon revenue.

Anderon, an IBM subsidiary, finalized a $1 billion research-and-development award from the U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. The funding will support Anderon's efforts to advance quantum wafer manufacturing at its facility in Albany, New York, where a 300-millimeter quantum wafer foundry serves customers across the quantum industry. IBM has put up $1 billion of its own money alongside the federal award, and production is underway with quantum wafers already in process. The Anderon award is part of a broader $2 billion package distributed across nine quantum computing companies under the CHIPS and Science Act, with GlobalFoundries in line for $375 million and D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion each expected to receive $100 million; each of the nine firms will give the federal government a minority ownership stake in exchange for the funding. The finalization follows a letter of intent between IBM and the Commerce Department announced in May, and last week Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum, and Quantinuum each finalized $100 million deals with the department. IBM stock fell 3.3% on Wednesday and has declined nearly 19% this year.

IBM and IonQ shares rallied Thursday on separate quantum computing developments. IBM's Anderon subsidiary finalized a $1 billion award from the U.S. Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act, funding research and development at a 300-millimeter quantum wafer facility in Albany, New York, with IBM committing another $1 billion to the project. IonQ, working with NVIDIA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, developed a generative AI method for producing quantum optimization circuits that maintained a roughly 28-second generation time across tested problem sizes. The two developments mark separate areas of industry progress, with IBM expanding quantum manufacturing capacity while IonQ focuses on reducing computational demands in quantum optimization.

IBM has finalized a $1 billion award under the CHIPS and Science Act for its quantum foundry subsidiary Anderon, and is backing the unit with a further $1 billion of its own money. The agreement converts a letter of intent signed in May, and the award is structured as research and development funding. Anderon runs a 300-millimeter pure-play quantum wafer foundry in New York, serving customers beyond IBM, with D-Wave among those expressing interest, and first wafers are already running through the facility. Separately, Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum and Quantinuum each signed $100 million deals with Commerce last week in exchange for equity stakes. Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research, said IBM's quantum roadmap requires a manufacturing foundation that can scale at the pace its work demands.

CUBE, the AI-native regulatory intelligence company, announced a collaboration with IBM to add a new Regulatory Horizon Scanning capability within IBM watsonx.governance. The integration embeds CUBE's global regulatory intelligence directly into watsonx.governance, giving enterprises continuous visibility into regulatory developments affecting their AI systems worldwide. The capability continuously monitors AI-related regulatory developments from authoritative sources, automatically capturing updates from regulators, legislative bodies, standards organisations and industry associations, and making them available within existing AI governance workflows. The collaboration follows partnerships CUBE announced earlier this year with Microsoft and ServiceNow, and comes as requirements emerge across jurisdictions ranging from the EU's AI Act to the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. Ben Richmond, Founder and CEO of CUBE, said regulatory intelligence is becoming a foundational layer of how AI itself is governed, while Maryam Ashoori, VP of watsonx.governance Product and Engineering at IBM, said CUBE brings a depth of regulatory expertise and global reach few providers can match.

Ridge-i and Nippon Seiki announced share buybacks after the close of trading on the 17th. Ridge-i will repurchase up to 160,000 shares, equivalent to 3.6% of its outstanding shares excluding treasury stock, for a maximum of 450 million yen, with the buyback period running from September 24 to November 30. Nippon Seiki will repurchase up to 3.61 million shares, equivalent to 6.27% of its outstanding shares excluding treasury stock, for a maximum of 9.979 billion yen, through the Tokyo Stock Exchange's off-auction own share repurchase trading system ToSTNeT-3 on the morning of September 18.

Figure Technology Solutions announced a partnership with Sierra on September 10 to deploy an AI agent aimed at recovering home equity loan applications that stall before closing. The Mortgage Bankers Association found that only 49% of home equity applications closed in 2024, even as HELOC volume hit $271 billion in 2025, leaving a gap Figure wants its new agent to close in a $2 trillion industry. The Figure Agent, built on Sierra's newly launched Horizon platform, marks the first U.S. use of a system designed to let AI work for days on complex, revenue-generating tasks rather than simple customer support, following up by voice and text on credit checks, identity verification, and bank account linking before handing borrowers to a human loan officer. Figure and Sierra reported that stalled applicants who engaged with the agent moved through those friction points at a 30% to 52% higher rate than those who did not and funded 67% more loan volume overall, while pairing the agent with a loan officer produced a 143% lift in funded loan conversion compared with loan officers working alone. The AI push arrives on top of a business already growing fast: on August 13, 2026, Figure reported second-quarter Consumer Loan Marketplace volume of $4.3 billion, up 132% year over year, net revenue up 113% to $226 million, and net income more than doubled to $87 million, with 102 origination partners added in the quarter for a total of 489 and third-quarter guidance of $4.8 billion to $5.2 billion. Even so, Figure's net take rate slipped to 3.6% in the second quarter from 4.0% a year earlier, hedge fund ownership fell to 32 funds from 51 the quarter before, and short interest sits at 6.53% of the float, leaving the market to weigh whether the AI-driven conversion gains will last beyond a single pilot.

Cognizant and Axis Bank announced the successful implementation and go-live of Cognizant's Application Management Services under Axis Bank's AMS 2.0 initiative. AMS 2.0 is a structured, jointly driven program designed to strengthen delivery governance, improve operational consistency and accelerate the adoption of automation across application support services, with an emphasis on governance, compliance and operational discipline. The initiative, spearheaded by Axis Bank, forms a key pillar of the Bank's broader technology transformation journey toward a scalable, resilient and future-ready IT operating model. Under a five-year agreement, Cognizant is working closely with Axis Bank to support systems across key business verticals including Branch and Operations, Cards, Corporate Banking and Treasury, Core Platforms and Payments, Finance and Accounting, Retail and Wholesale Banking, and Data Platforms and Integration. Avinash Raghavendra, Group Head of Information Technology and Retail Operations at Axis Bank, said the implementation is part of the Bank's efforts to build a more resilient, scalable and automation-enabled operations model, while Ganesh Ayyar, President for Asia Pacific and Japan at Cognizant, said the teams are focused on disciplined service delivery, governance-led operations and the responsible use of automation to improve run stability and efficiency.

I2 Enterprise Public Company Limited, or I2, has won a battery energy storage system (BESS) project along with an eight-year service contract worth 210 million baht from PEA ENCOM, opening the door for the company to play a role in clean energy infrastructure and to gradually recognise revenue on a quarterly basis through 2034. The deal is part of I2's strategy to increase its weighting in the clean energy business from a base centred on information technology, in order to ride the Energy Transition wave. The company is not stopping at BESS but is building an energy business portfolio covering Smart Grid, Solar PPA, ESCO and EV Charging. I2 currently has a total backlog of 713 million baht and in the second half of 2026 will continue to bid for government and state enterprise work in Infrastructure, Data Center, AI and Smart Grid & BESS to support its target of 20% growth in operating results for 2026.

IBM's Anderon unit has finalized a $1 billion CHIPS Act award with the U.S. Department of Commerce to fund research and development aimed at expanding domestic quantum wafer manufacturing. The award follows a letter of intent announced in May between IBM and the Commerce Department. Anderon, based in Albany, New York, operates a 300-millimeter pure-play quantum wafer foundry serving customers across the quantum technology industry. IBM is also committing an additional $1 billion of its own capital to Anderon, effectively doubling the scale of investment tied to the project. The funding targets U.S. capabilities in quantum wafer manufacturing, a highly specialized and capital-intensive area, and fits Washington's broader effort to strengthen domestic semiconductor production through the CHIPS Act.

Jacobs Solutions reported Q2 revenues of $2.42 billion, up 8.3% year on year, the fastest growth among the seven government and technical consulting stocks tracked, though full-year EPS guidance came in merely in line with analysts' estimates. SAIC posted the group's biggest estimate beat, with revenues of $1.88 billion up 6.3% year on year and 7.1% above consensus, alongside beats on EPS and full-year EPS guidance. Amentum was the weakest performer, reporting revenues of $3.49 billion, down 2% year on year and 2.2% short of expectations, with a significant EPS miss. Booz Allen Hamilton recorded revenues of $2.8 billion, down 4.2% year on year and 0.5% below expectations, but still beat on EPS, while UL Solutions reported revenues of $816 million, up 5.2% and in line with expectations, also beating on EPS. As a group, the seven stocks' revenues matched consensus and share prices have fallen 3% on average since the latest results.

Anderon, an IBM company, has finalized a $1B award under the CHIPS Act from the US Department of Commerce, funding research and development aimed at expanding US quantum wafer manufacturing capabilities. The award follows a letter of intent announced in May between the Commerce Department and IBM. Anderon is also backed by an additional $1B investment from IBM. Based in Albany, New York, Anderon operates a 300-millimeter pure-play quantum wafer foundry designed to serve customers across the broader quantum technology industry.

Anderon LLC, an IBM company, has finalized a $1 billion award under the CHIPS and Science Act with the U.S. Department of Commerce to accelerate its research and development of U.S.-based quantum wafer manufacturing. The award, first announced in May under a letter of intent between the Department and IBM, supports Anderon's state-of-the-art 300-millimeter pure-play quantum wafer foundry, which is backed by an additional $1 billion investment from IBM. Headquartered in Albany, New York, the venture serves the quantum industry as a pure-play foundry offering quantum wafer manufacturing to customers across the ecosystem. Anderon CEO Mukesh Khare said the agreement strengthens the company's ability to deliver the manufacturing scale the quantum industry needs, while Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and an IBM Fellow, said Anderon's wafer fabrication focus gives IBM the foundation to execute its quantum roadmap. The company said its first quantum wafers are now running through its manufacturing facility, an early production milestone demonstrating its ability to translate advanced pre-production research into commercial-grade quantum wafer technologies.

Atos has received the SAP Sovereign Cloud Partner designation, reinforcing its Digital Sovereignty strategy. The recognition, announced September 16, 2026, applies currently to Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, with validation for additional locations underway. Atos said the designation strengthens its position to support regulated organizations in adopting cloud and AI solutions from SAP with full control over data, operations and compliance. Florin Rotar, Chief Technology Officer of Atos Group, said the recognition reinforces Atos' strategy to deliver sovereign digital transformation at scale, while Martin Merz, President Sovereign Cloud at SAP, said working with Atos as a validated partner expands the reach of SAP Sovereign Cloud. Atos, a longstanding SAP platinum partner, was recently awarded the golden certificate from SAP, celebrating 20 consecutive years with SAP Certification for Operations Partners as a certified SAP Global Operations Partner, making it only the second SAP partner with global operations certification to receive the golden certificate.

Jingwei Shares announced on the evening of September 16 that Chinasoft International Xi'an Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. plans to acquire 17.8062 million shares at 53 yuan per share, representing 29.68% of total share capital and 29.99% of total share capital excluding shares in the listed company's repurchase account. The total transfer price is 944 million yuan. The company's controlling shareholder will change from having no controlling shareholder to Chinasoft Xi'an, and trading will resume on September 17. As of the close on September 9, Jingwei Shares' stock price was 37.50 yuan per share, implying a transfer price premium of about 41.3% over the market price. The transferee, Chinasoft Xi'an, is a newly established entity set up in September 2026 with registered capital of 600 million yuan and has not yet commenced actual business operations. Its indirect controlling shareholder is the Hong Kong-listed company Chinasoft International. Since its listing in 2023, Jingwei Shares' net profit attributable to the parent company has continued to decline. In the first half of 2026, revenue was 135 million yuan, down 37.30% year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of 23.1229 million yuan, swinging from profit to loss year on year. After the share transfer is completed, Jingwei Shares will initiate a board restructuring. The new board will consist of seven directors, with Chinasoft Xi'an entitled to nominate three non-independent directors and three independent director candidates. The chairman will be a director nominated by Chinasoft Xi'an.

Aofei Data announced on September 16 that its controlling subsidiary Guangdong Aofei New Energy Co., Ltd. will be moved into the innovation layer starting September 17, 2026. The announcement said Aofei New Energy meets the conditions for entering the innovation layer, including net profit of no less than 10 million yuan in the last two years, a weighted average return on equity of no less than 6% on average over the last two years, and average operating revenue of no less than 80 million yuan over the last two years with sustained growth and an average annual compound growth rate of no less than 30%. In the first half of 2026, Aofei Data achieved revenue of 1.469 billion yuan and net profit attributable to the parent company of 197 million yuan.

IBM expanded its relationship with Turkey's Kredi Kayıt Bürosu on Monday, pushing watsonx and IBM infrastructure deeper into a financial platform operating at enormous scale. KKB plans to deploy IBM data, mainframe and watsonx technologies as it modernizes infrastructure capable of handling more than 8.5 billion transactions annually, a workload that works out to roughly 23.3 million transactions every day. The project spans software-development acceleration, system monitoring, database management and API integration, putting IBM technology directly into a mission-critical financial workload. IBM did not disclose the contract value or a deployment timetable, while second-quarter company revenue increased just 1% to $17.2 billion. IBM shares slipped approximately 0.4% to $248.07 Tuesday morning, a price only 2.23% above the $242.67 GF Value estimate.

Infraset Public Company Limited, or INSET, announced that its share buyback programme for financial management has ended on 15 September 2026. Managing Director Sakbaworn Pukkanasut stated that the company repurchased a total of 4 million shares, representing 0.49% of all issued shares, with a total value of 11.33 million baht, against a budget framework set at no more than 116 million baht and a maximum buyback of 40 million shares, or 4.92% of all issued shares. The programme was approved by the company's board of directors meeting on 10 March 2026, and the buyback was carried out through the Stock Exchange of Thailand's trading system between 16 March and 15 September 2026.

Infraset Public Company Limited, or INSET, announced that its board of directors approved a share buyback programme for financial management with a maximum budget of no more than 116 million baht and a maximum of 40 million shares to be repurchased, or no more than 4.92% of all issued and sold shares. The buyback period was set at no more than 6 months, from 16 March 2026 to 15 September 2026, through the automatic matching method on the Stock Exchange of Thailand's trading system. The programme recently ended on 15 September 2026, with the company repurchasing a total of 4,000,000 shares, representing 0.49% of all issued and sold shares, for a total value of 11,334,682 baht, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. Under the law, the company may sell the repurchased shares after a period of 3 months from the end date of the programme and must complete the sale within 3 years from the end date of the programme. If the deadline passes and the shares cannot be sold or are not fully sold, the law requires the company to reduce its paid-up registered capital by cancelling the registered repurchased shares that have not yet been sold. The determination of the sale period and the cancellation of repurchased shares will be presented to the board of directors' meeting for further consideration, and the company will provide further notification.

Everforth said its federal segment, Everforth ECS, won a four-year, $30 million contract to support the Defense Health Agency's technology modernization program. Under the award, Everforth ECS will build predictive AI models, executive dashboards, and performance metrics giving DHA leaders visibility into program cost, schedule, cybersecurity risk, and cloud spending within the Defense Health Agency's Information Technology Program Support and Analytics Services program. The deal lands less than two weeks after Everforth's July 29 second-quarter report, which showed revenue of $1.01 billion and Adjusted EBITDA of $96.7 million both clearing the high end of management's own guidance, with the Federal Government Segment's gross margin improving to 19.6%, up 40 basis points from a year earlier. The same report showed consolidated revenue down from $1.02 billion a year earlier, net income of $14.2 million, or $0.35 per diluted share, versus $29.3 million and $0.67, and a federal segment book-to-bill ratio of 0.8 to 1 over the trailing twelve months. Everforth repurchased 0.4 million shares for $11.5 million, repaid $23.9 million of debt, and after the quarter refinanced its revolver into a new five-year, $600 million facility, while total long-term debt rose to $1,438.1 million at June 30 from $1,169.4 million at the end of 2025.

IIG is pressing ahead with its turnaround after gross margin reached 16.6% in the second quarter of 2026, up from 13.4% in the same period a year earlier, helping to cut its net loss by as much as 50%, with total revenue of 163 million baht, flat compared with the same period last year. Ms. Chanoknan Thiamrat, investor relations officer at I&I Group Public Company Limited, or IIG, said the company is placing more weight on its consulting and ERP design-and-installation business, focusing more on Oracle software, while resizing its customer relationship management, or CRM, projects, namely Salesforce, to fit clients' budgets, and tightening sales and administrative expenses to boost margins. The trend for the third quarter of 2026 is expected to be close to that of the first half. Under the JUMP+ Plan for 2026 to 2028, the company is developing an AI Intelligent Platform, or AI-CRM, for the Thailand and Southeast Asia markets, which is more than 40% complete and is targeted for commercial launch within the third quarter of 2026. It aims for AI-CRM revenue of 30 million baht in 2028 and expects net profit of no less than 20 million baht within 2028, under assumptions of 10% annual revenue growth and an 8% net profit margin.

IBM and NASA have released the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model, an open-source AI model trained on decades of lunar observation data from missions and instruments including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. In benchmark testing, IBM and NASA said the model identified important lunar surface features up to 23% more accurately than widely used methods, supporting tasks such as mapping craters, spotting potential ice deposits and studying volcanic features. The lunar model joins IBM and NASA's broader Prithvi family of open-source foundation models, which already covers geospatial analysis and weather, and NASA has demonstrated Prithvi in orbit, suggesting the technology could run directly on satellites. The project is strategically positive for IBM's AI credentials but carries limited near-term revenue, since the model is open-source and no major commercial product or large new NASA contract was announced. The commercial opportunity depends heavily on the pace of lunar exploration, including NASA's Artemis program and China's plans to search for ice near the Moon's south pole.

Kyndryl has completed its acquisition of Healthcare IT Leaders, LLC, an enterprise IT services provider serving hospitals and health systems across the United States, for up to $350 million, including a contingent performance-based earnout. The deal follows Kyndryl's August 10, 2026 announcement of its intent to acquire the company. The acquisition combines Healthcare IT Leaders' healthcare consulting and application managed services expertise with Kyndryl's infrastructure and AI capabilities, letting healthcare organizations work with a single provider across applications, infrastructure and consulting. Revenues generated by Healthcare IT Leaders over the twelve-month period ending March 31, 2026, were approximately 1% of Kyndryl's revenue for fiscal year 2026, and the transaction does not change Kyndryl's fiscal year 2027 outlook provided on August 5, 2026. Kyndryl said it has temporarily paused its share repurchase program to preserve financial flexibility and will update investors when it resumes.

Shares of Interlink Telecom Public Company Limited, or ITEL, Thai Com Public Company Limited, or THCOM, and Infraset Public Company Limited, or INSET, rose after the companies won the USO#3 auction project, a sub-project under the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's announcement of the lowest bidders late last Friday. The contracts have a combined value of 5.42 billion baht, covering five regions across Thailand, with THCOM, ITEL, TRUE, INSET and TKC securing contracts in the project. Most recently, ITEL shares stood at 1.66 baht, up 0.18 baht, or 12.16%; INSET shares stood at 4.54 baht, up 0.14 baht, or 3.18%; and THCOM shares stood at 10.40 baht, up 0.40 baht, or 4.00%. Krungsri Securities said THCOM and ITEL are the main beneficiaries of this project because their profits will recover from losses in 2027, or may even double. It maintained a buy recommendation on THCOM with a target price of 14.7 baht and on INSET with a target price of 6.34 baht. At the same time, it upgraded its recommendation on ITEL to buy from hold, with a new target price of 2.0 baht from 1.5 baht, based on a PBV of 0.8 times versus 0.6 times previously.

Several companies announced business progress among today's stocks to watch. Gulf Energy Development, or GULF, signed power purchase agreements, or PPAs, for four wind power projects with a combined generating capacity of 346.5 megawatts with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, or EGAT, pushing the company's Thai wind energy portfolio past 1,058.5 megawatts. All 14 projects are expected to reach commercial operation, or COD, by 2030, which will generate annual profit of 2 billion baht, while the latest four projects are set to add roughly 500 million baht per year in profit. KCE Electronics, or KCE, drew speculative interest on the chance of winning printed circuit board, or PCB, work to supply Tesla's Optimus robots. Management acknowledged the matter is under way but no conclusion has been reached, while brokers see a successful deal potentially lifting its P/E to 40 times and have raised their target price to 70 baht. Meanwhile, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, or NBTC, announced the winners of the USO 3 auction with a combined value of 5,423.70 million baht, with THCOM and ITEL sweeping the two large areas worth a combined more than 2,448 million baht, while TRUE and INSET won the northern work worth 1,248.50 million baht, and ITEL and TKC took the southern work worth 965.70 million baht. Sky ICT, or SKY, was pleased that AOTGA awarded it two large projects spanning 25 years with a combined value of 67,300 million baht. The apron and ground support equipment service projects are expected to begin operating in the middle of next year, supporting earnings in 2027 with significant profit growth.

Sky ICT Public Company Limited, or SKY, is set to recognise its share of profits from AOT Ground Aviation Services Company Limited, or AOTGA, after the Cabinet approved the selection of the private partner and the key terms of joint investment contracts for two major projects of Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited, or AOT. The projects are the apron and ground handling equipment services project and the cargo terminal services project. AOTGA is the private company selected to jointly invest in both projects under a 25-year concession model, with a combined value of more than 67.3 billion baht. SKY holds a net stake of approximately 24% in AOTGA through a subsidiary. Sittidech Mailap, Chief Executive Officer of SKY, said the company is currently awaiting AOT's call to sign the contracts so that operations can officially begin. The apron and ground handling equipment services project is expected to start operations around the middle of next year, while the cargo terminal services project is scheduled to begin actual operations within two years of the start of ground services. Once the projects begin operations, AOTGA will immediately start recognising revenue, and SKY, as a shareholder, will recognise returns in the form of profit sharing in proportion to its shareholding. This will cause SKY's earnings from next year onward to grow significantly. Meanwhile, Yuan Ta Securities (Thailand) Company Limited said in an analysis that AOTGA is the third player in a growing market and is expected to hold a long-term market share of 15-20%. Under that assumption, AOTGA is expected to earn around 700-1,000 million baht per year. SKY, meanwhile, targets revenue growth of around 20% year on year in 2026 and expects growth to continue in 2027. It estimates normal profit of 923 million baht in 2026, up 31% year on year, rising to 1,150 million baht in 2027, up 25% year on year, representing average growth of around 28%. It also gives a preliminary appropriate price at the end of 2026 of 25.75 baht per share.

Cognizant Technology Solutions CFO Jatin Dalal said the IT services industry's prolonged slow growth reflects both secular pressure from artificial intelligence and a broader lack of discretionary spending across several end markets, while banking, financial services and insurance remained a notable exception with double-digit growth in the second quarter. Speaking at a Citi fireside chat hosted by IT services analyst Bryan Keane, Dalal said demand conditions were broadly unchanged from the company's recent earnings-call commentary, though performance differs significantly by vertical, with communications, media and technology customers still investing while aggregate CMT growth was held back by communications-sector trends and the effect of a particular customer that weighed on first-half results and has now stabilized. He said bookings were up 5% over the trailing 12 months, supported by large-deal activity, with new work volumes growing at a double-digit pace partly offset by productivity-led shrinkage in existing work, and that 40% of Cognizant's software-engineering work is now AI-assisted. Cognizant expects its traditional vector one services to remain the dominant source of revenue in 2026, with vector two and vector three opportunities becoming more visible in bookings but generally not yet comparable to $300 million contracts, and their revenue contribution becoming more meaningful in 2027 and 2028. On capital allocation, Dalal said Cognizant plans to maintain its 50/25/25 framework, allocating 50% to mergers and acquisitions, 25% to dividends and 25% to buybacks, after adding and executing an additional $1 billion buyback in May, and he said the company expects regulators to offer draft regulations on a potential Indian listing by the end of the year.

Capgemini said on Saturday it had entered into an agreement to sell its US subsidiary, Capgemini Government Solutions, to ITC Federal, a US provider of IT solutions and enterprise services to federal law enforcement, homeland security and defence agencies. The French IT giant put the subsidiary up for sale in February following controversy over a contract to supply US Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a tool designed to identify and locate foreign nationals. Capgemini said the transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks. The subsidiary represented 0.4 percent of the group's global 2025 revenue and less than two percent of its US revenue. Capgemini operates in about 50 countries and is one of France's largest listed companies.

Capgemini has signed a definitive agreement to sell its subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions to ITC Federal, a US IT solutions and enterprise services provider serving federal law enforcement, homeland security and defense agencies. The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks, subject to customary conditions. Capgemini Government Solutions represented 0.4% of the Group's global 2025 revenue and less than 2% of its US revenue, as indicated when the Group announced the launch of the divestment process earlier this year. Capgemini reported 2025 revenues of €22.5 billion and employs over 410,000 team members in more than 50 countries.

Netskope reported second-quarter annual recurring revenue of $899 million, up 27%, with revenue of $220.5 million beating guidance as management raised its full-year outlook. Remaining performance obligations rose 36% to $1.35 billion, net retention held at 114%, and customers generating over $100,000 in annual recurring revenue grew 23% to 1,686, now 87% of total ARR. The company pegs its AI security greenfield opportunity at $170 billion within a broader $336 billion market, with about a third of that pipeline already in or entering the proof-of-concept phase. Netskope posted negative free cash flow of $29.8 million and guided to a full-year free cash flow margin of about 2%, cut roughly 5% of its workforce, and said its shift to annual billing is deferring cash collections, while third-quarter guidance implies growth slowing to roughly 24% from 29%.

IBM launched an open-source Lunar Foundation Model with NASA, sending its shares up about 2% to $238.62 on Friday. The model was built from more than 30 data layers gathered by nine instruments across four NASA missions, and it can flag potential ice deposits, chart craters for safer landings and examine volcanic terrain. Benchmark testing showed accuracy gains of as much as 23% over commonly used techniques, giving IBM a powerful showcase for applying AI to complex scientific data. Open sourcing the lunar model will not generate meaningful licensing revenue by itself; the bigger prize is proving IBM can turn enormous datasets into specialized AI systems and then sell the computing infrastructure, software and consulting expertise needed to deploy them on Earth. IBM trades 1.64% below its GF Value estimate of $242.59, suggesting modest upside rather than a deep discount.