IBM's pre-earnings warning to investors reveals that customers are shifting technology budgets toward memory chips, servers, and storage to build AI infrastructure before expected price increases, and diverting more money toward cybersecurity against new AI-powered threats, leaving less available for other purchases including IBM's latest mainframe computers and related software. IBM said customers spent the final weeks of June buying servers, storage, and memory to lock in supply before prices rose, a much bigger shift than it expected, hurting sales of its new Z mainframes. The company also blamed "rapidly evolving" cybersecurity concerns for delaying numerous large deals; Barclays analysts said the comments likely refer to Anthropic's recently launched Mythos AI model. While IBM's stock plummeted nearly 25%, shares of memory companies rose, with SK Hynix surging more than 20% on Nasdaq on Tuesday, and shares of cybersecurity vendors including CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks also jumped. BNP Paribas analysts wrote there was no indication that this trend has yet abated, while Barclays analysts argued the spending shift is probably temporary. IBM's other software businesses, including Red Hat, continued to perform well, with revenue growth actually accelerating.