IBM to Acquire Confluent in $11 Billion Deal to Build “Smart Data Platform” for AI

IBM has struck a definitive agreement to acquire Confluent, a leading data streaming firm, in an all-cash transaction valued at $11 billion, paying $31 per share.

Earlier in October, it was reported that Confluent is exploring a potential sale.

The deal marks one of IBM’s largest in recent years — a bold move to supercharge its hybrid cloud and enterprise AI strategy by giving customers access to real-time data flows, critical for modern AI and automation systems.

“IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications and APIs,” said IBM CEO Arvind Krishna.

Confluent’s Apache Kafka–based platform specialises in streaming data, connecting, processing, and governing information in real time — a capability seen as foundational for AI models, autonomous agents, and event-driven applications spanning public clouds, data centers, and hybrid environments.

The acquisition is expected to deliver synergies across IBM’s offerings — blending data, automation, integration, and AI tools — and is projected to be accretive to adjusted EBITDA within the first full year post-close and boost free cash flow by year two.

Confluent serves over 6,500 clients globally — including more than 40% of the Fortune 500 — making it a critical piece of infrastructure for enterprises seeking to harness live data streams rather than static datasets.

The transaction is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval and is expected to close by mid-2026.

By unifying real-time data streaming with AI and cloud infrastructure, IBM aims to offer enterprises an end-to-end “Smart Data Platform” that helps them move from insight to action — faster, more reliably, and at scale.