IBM CEO Arvind Krishna is positioning India at the heart of the global quantum computing revolution. Krishna emphasizes that ...
What Arvind Krishna said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, argued that the AI economy will still require labor, and India is one of the few places with enough motivated, hungry talent. He compared India's potential to Japan, South Korea, and Germany's post-war growth, emphasizing that these countries became global ecosystem members. On quantum, he said it's early days but expects massive commercial advantage in two to three years. IBM has placed one quantum computer in Amravati, with another location unstated. He cited a prime number factorization problem solved by three IIT alumni 15 years ago as an example of India's deep math talent. He agreed with a co-panelist on the need for good leadership but argued that democracy, despite its flaws, will prevail if people's appetites are whetted. He identified low-level corruption as a tailwind and the lack of risk capital as the biggest headwind, calling for more risk capital to unlock economic opportunity.
Key takeaways
IBM has placed one quantum computer in Amravati, with another location unstated.
India's talent pool is a key reason for IBM's quantum investment, citing IIT alumni solving prime number problems.
Krishna sees India's growth potential akin to Japan, South Korea, and Germany's post-war booms.
Krishna identifies lack of risk capital as India's biggest headwind, with low-level corruption as a tailwind.
This is completely wrong in the current AI economy that you're not going to need labor. You are going to need labor and that is one of the few places they can get enough of it with people who are motivated, who are hungry, who want to get work done. So, you take the political environment, the regulatory environment with the talent and you would begin to say is this not the same story as Japan went through in the 50s and 60s, that South Korea went through in the 70s and 80s, that Germany went through in the 50s and 60s. Why wouldn't you want to be part of that explosion and be able to participate in it? And the reason I picked those examples, every one of those became a member of the global ecosystem. It was not for internal only.
Arvind, you're nothing if not consistent because I remember on this stage a year ago you when everyone was talking about AI and job destruction, you actually painted a more optimistic picture partly because of the labor, partly because of the need for that. I'm curious that there a lot of folks who think of India and think of the services industry. With you have been a pioneer in talking about quantum. Can you tell us a little bit about what that will do for the US-India relationship and how you see that from a workforce perspective?
Two to three for massive commercial advantage. So, so why are we and Ambassador Quarter mentioned it, we have put in one quantum computer that is going to go into Amravati and that is a agreement with the state there and with the national government. We are talking about another one. I will leave that location unstated until it is done. The reason we are putting it there is where are you going to get enough talent who has knowledge of math and physics, who wants to work on translating the problems that we know can be done onto the unique mathematics that quantum computers can do. They will certainly leverage it for themselves, but they will also leverage it to then be able to take that problem set globally. That is the investments that we are making and we are committed to because the number of places in the world where you have enough of that deep math talent, but in this case it's not volume, it's quality and depth of talent. And the ability to think about these really hard problems and be able to then put them on these systems in ways that are going to be unique for at least the next decade. That is what we are trying to tap into, and when I talk into those people, I'll give you an example. There are these problems called prime number problems. Can you factorize these large numbers? And for 100 years people thought these were impossible. That's a problem because Prem mentioned one of the IITs. That is a problem that three people from one of the IITs actually solved about 15 years ago. We can tap those people to leverage these computers. I think it unpacks all kinds of possibilities.
Krishna, A. (2026, July 1). IBM CEO Arvind Krishna's Big Quantum Bet On India: 'Where Else Will You Get The Talent?' [Interview transcript]. Mint. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1053372/
MLA
Arvind Krishna. "IBM CEO Arvind Krishna's Big Quantum Bet On India: 'Where Else Will You Get The Talent?'." Mint, 1 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1053372/.
BibTeX
@misc{krishna2026_1053372,
author = {Arvind Krishna},
title = {IBM CEO Arvind Krishna's Big Quantum Bet On India: 'Where Else Will You Get The Talent?'},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Mint. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jul},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1053372/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
