RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna on Monday sent a congratulatory letter to presumed president-elect Joe Biden on Monday even though President Donald Trump has not conceded defeat and some election results are being challenged.
But in an interview with CNBC’s John Fortt as part of CNBC’s Evolve Summit on Tuesday Krishna defended sending the letter.
“So following the networks, we are no political experts, let me just say that. But the networks and the various states, as they called for President-Elect Biden, IBM has historically worked with administrations of both parties in order to further our country’s economic agenda,” he said.
“We felt it was really important to lay out priorities which can help further where we are. And as I said in the letter, promoting unity, promoting science, promoting digital infrastructure and providing economic opportunity so that people who are disadvantaged can move forward, and promoting better trust is really important to move our nation forward.
Big Blue CEO writes Joe Biden: ‘IBM is committed to working with your Administration’
“Then, in order to provide a little bit of color, we note a little bit of what we mean by each of these. And really, using science to fight COVID, using artificial intelligence, as well as supercomputing, to come up with better therapeutics and recipes in order to promote reskilling. And maybe not everyone needs to have a four-year college degree to have a great job.
“And I think you would agree that really promoting racial justice by furthering trusted technology, using precision regulation to avoid inappropriate use, I think are great examples where the public and private sector can come together to really move the needle forward in this country.”
IBM owns Raleigh-based Red Hat and operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP.
You can read the full transcript online.
