I don't know... IBM is really really big. Even if 20% of the company is technology-focused, that's still a huge number of people. They supply the finance and defense world with machines, operating systems, and compilers and they also provide support for them. They also have a research division that routinely publishes at all of the top conferences.
There's no question. A company builds some cloudy offerings with a few million and HN calls them a technology company. IBM's internal use alone is almost a billion a year of their technology. Then they sell billions to others. So, yeah, they're a technology company.
And anyone challenging them, their government connections, and patent portfolio better remember that.
IBM is both a technology company and a services company. They shifted their primary strategy to services when they saw it doing well while eg server markets weren't. Right now, they make billions selling mainframes, servers, and software licenses. They also hit 7nm in the lab recently while Intel struggles with lesser tech. Their R&D is several billion dollars a year ranging from product development to foundational science.
They're more of a technology company than most that make Hacker News. They also sell services. They also acquire proven implementations of new products and services. The combo is called a technology conglomerate & it's a proven model to make billions over decades.
also expect compose to be totally different after about a year (source: i've worked for a company that was aquired by IBM)