That is where I reached out to chatGPT :-)

IBM’s leasing model for mainframes goes back to the 1950s, right at the dawn of commercial computing.

1952: IBM introduced its first commercial computer, the 701 Defense Calculator, and it was leased, not sold.

In fact, throughout the 1950s–1970s, IBM’s entire business model revolved around leasing, not selling. Machines like the IBM 1401 (1959) and IBM System/360 (1964) were almost always leased on multi-year contracts.

The rationale: mainframes were incredibly expensive (millions of dollars), and leasing made them financially accessible while keeping IBM in control of maintenance and upgrades.

By the 1980s–1990s, as competition grew and clients wanted more flexibility, IBM began offering outright purchases in addition to leases.

🔹 Today:

IBM still uses a version of this model, but modernized. Customers can buy, lease, or do usage-based pricing for IBM Z mainframes and Power systems.

They’ve introduced IBM Financing (through IBM Global Financing), which still lets organizations lease hardware.

More recently, IBM offers “Consumption-based pricing” and “as-a-service models” for mainframes, e.g. IBM zSystems Cloud Consumption Solutions, which mimic cloud pay-per-use economics.

👉 So yes, leasing is still an option, but now it’s blended with subscription and cloud-like consumption models