17 Trillion Won Vanished in a Day… The Dividend Aristocrat that Dragged Down the Dow

International Business Machines (IBM) closed at $294.56 on February 3 in New York, down 6.45%, erasing about $16.6 billion in market value (roughly 22 trillion won). Some 6.3 million shares traded—well above its recent average—leaving its post‐drop market capitalization at around $275 billion (about 370 trillion won).

On the same day, steep declines in IBM and Salesforce shares dragged the Dow Jones Industrial Average down by more than 300 points. Just days earlier, IBM shares had rallied over 7% after the company reported stronger‐than‐expected fourth‐quarter 2025 results—$19.7 billion in revenue and $4.52 in earnings per share—and disclosed a generative AI order backlog exceeding $12.5 billion. The recent pullback is seen as profit‐taking after that earnings‐driven rally, combined with a broader correction in technology stocks.

Founded in 1911, IBM is a leading U.S. IT company specializing in mainframes, Red Hat–based hybrid cloud solutions, and its WatsonX AI platform. It is also classified as a dividend aristocrat, having paid uninterrupted dividends for more than a century. CEO Arvind Krishna has emphasized an AI-and-infrastructure–focused growth story, targeting over 5% revenue growth and a $1 billion increase in free cash flow by 2026.