A $5-billion gamble changed IBM’s future: How Thomas Watson Jr. moved the company from punched cards to computing

Thomas J. Watson Jr. led IBM’s massive shift from punched-card machines to electronic computing. After becoming president in 1952, he oversaw a $5-billion investment in the System/360 computer family. This bold move changed the company’s future, as he pushed IBM into a new era while moving past older data-processing systems.