IBM & Oracle Expand Partnership to Help Enterprise Scale AI

IBM and Oracle have announced an extension to their partnership that reaches its 40th year in 2026.

The two companies are introducing new capabilities across agentic AI, hybrid cloud infrastructure and enterprise automation that could help organisations scale machine learning workloads and integrate AI workflows across disconnected systems.

"This year, we celebrate the 40th year of the strategic partnership between IBM and Oracle," Charles Jenkins, Global Strategic Partnerships at IBM and Corinne Koppel, Global & Americas Oracle Practice Lead at IBM Consulting, say in an announcement from the IBM Newsroom.

"To mark the milestone, we are advancing our partnership to help meet our customers' evolving needs and help them succeed in the era of AI and hybrid cloud."

The announcement addresses challenges many organisations face when attempting to move AI projects from pilot to production. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value, enterprises continue to encounter barriers when integrating applications and data across multiple cloud environments.

Hybrid cloud infrastructure changes

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) will become available for purchase and use within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure later in 2026. This marks a shift from the current Bring Your Own Subscription model.

Customers will also be able to access Red Hat solutions through the Oracle Marketplace starting later this year. Oracle Universal Credits can be used to provision RHEL through OCI, which could reduce friction when building and scaling applications across hybrid environments.

The partnership extension aims to provide operational flexibility while reducing complexity in multi-cloud deployments. Both companies say the changes respond to customer requirements for more integrated tooling across infrastructure layers.

AI agent orchestration capabilities

IBM watsonx Orchestrate has introduced AI Agents for Learning and Development and Talent Acquisition. These agents extend capabilities across Oracle Fusion Applications and third-party systems.

IBM Consulting plans to expand its support for Oracle customers with a new managed service offering for Maximo on OCI.

The service is designed to help businesses move Maximo workloads to the same cloud environment as Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP thereby helping to optimise compute, storage and network resources in real time.

A new connector between Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning and the IBM Maximo Application Suite will launch to help joint customers manage business processes across finance, procurement, assets, facilities and ESG operations. The integration includes built-in AI and analytics capabilities.

IBM is using its AI-driven modernisation intelligence platform, IBM Txture, to help businesses identify which workloads should be prioritised for OCI and how to modernise them.

"AI delivers the most impactful value when it works seamlessly across an entire business," Greg Pavlik, Executive Vice President, AI and Data Management Services at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure had previously said.

"IBM and Oracle have been collaborating to drive customer success for decades and our expanded partnership will provide customers new ways to help transform their businesses with AI."

Data management and security extensions

IBM Envizi is set to launch as a SaaS offering on OCI, initially in Saudi Arabia. The deployment will enable businesses to manage environmental, social and governance reporting alongside operational and financial data within the same cloud environment.

IBM Turbonomic – which has been verified to run on OCI – helps organisations optimise compute, storage and network resources in real time while maintaining performance policies.

IBM Guardium support is being extended to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure. The extension gives businesses additional tools to identify and respond to data security risks and compliance requirements.

The capabilities build on IBM's acquisitions of Accelalpha and Applications Software Technologies, which expanded the company's capabilities in supply chain, ERP and public sector transformation.

Jenkins and Koppel add: "What better way to build on 40 years of partnership than with these new AI and hybrid capabilities to help customers modernise, orchestrate and scale improved outcomes across their operations?

"We're excited to continue to expand our work with Oracle to help our customers transform their business and unlock new levels of productivity and competitive advantage."