IBM has unveiled Sovereign Core, a new software platform designed to give enterprises full operational control over AI workloads and data infrastructure. The announcement came at the Think 2026 conference, signaling a shift from data residency to a broader concept of digital sovereignty.
"It started off as data sovereignty ... but it very quickly shifted from that to operational sovereignty," said Sripriya Srinivasan, IBM's general manager for Core and ALM software products. "Who runs my platform? Where is my control plane? Where are the keys and secrets?"
According to Gartner, over 75% of enterprises outside the U.S. will have a digital sovereignty strategy by 2030. IBM's Sovereign Core, built on Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat AI, embeds the control plane, identity, and secrets management entirely within the client's boundary. It works with ecosystem partners including Dell, AMD, and Intel, offering hardware-agnostic flexibility.
"Our principle was give the control and put the control back in the client's hands," Srinivasan said.
IBM will route Sovereign Core through local managed service providers and ecosystem partners, aiming to reduce AI deployment time from 12-18 months to just days.