IBM is in advanced talks to acquire Confluent for roughly $11 billion, according to people familiar with the matter — a move that would sharpen Big Blue’s ability to handle real‑time data flows for cloud and AI customers.
The potential deal, reported by people close to the negotiations, could be announced as soon as Monday. Neither company has publicly confirmed terms at the time of reporting, and the figures and timetable remain subject to change.
Why IBM is chasing Confluent
Confluent is built around Apache Kafka, a widely used open‑source system for streaming data at scale. That means customers can route and process live streams — everything from payments and sensor feeds to clickstreams and operational logs — in near real time. For a company like IBM, which has been pushing to grow its software and cloud services under CEO Arvind Krishna, that capability plugs directly into two strategic priorities: making hybrid clouds more compelling for enterprises, and giving customers an easier path to tap live data for artificial‑intelligence workloads.
IBM’s acquisition track record this year and last suggests it’s intent on bulking up its software stack. Last year’s HashiCorp purchase and other deals have pointed the company toward cloud tooling that enterprises actually buy and run. Adding Confluent would layer event streaming onto IBM’s mix of middleware, managed services and AI offerings.
What the market and customers might see
Investors have grown cautious after IBM flagged slower growth in parts of its cloud software business earlier this year. Buying Confluent would be a relatively large, high‑profile bet: Confluent’s market capitalization has been notably smaller than the acquisition price under discussion, indicating buyers would be paying a premium for control of the company and its technology.
For Confluent’s customers, the acquisition could mean tighter integration with IBM’s hybrid cloud services — but also questions about product roadmaps, pricing and open‑source commitments. Confluent built its business by commercializing Kafka and bundling developer‑friendly tooling; retaining developer trust would be critical if Confluent becomes part of a much larger corporate machine.
Bigger picture: data, streams and AI
Demand for companies that help enterprises organize and serve large volumes of data has surged as businesses race to deploy generative AI in production. Streaming platforms like Confluent feed models with fresh, operational data — the kind of inputs that make AI systems more relevant and accurate in real time. That dynamic helps explain why strategic buyers are circling firms that sit at the intersection of data infrastructure and AI applications.
This trend is visible across the tech landscape — major vendors are coupling models and services with richer access to enterprise data. Microsoft’s recent work on in‑house image models and tooling is one example of platform owners building vertically integrated stacks to speed AI adoption Microsoft’s MAI‑Image‑1. Google’s efforts to let AI products search user files and services also point to the premium companies place on data plumbing and access Gemini Deep Research plugs into Gmail and Drive.
Numbers and timing
Publicly traded Confluent’s shares had been trading well below the headline price implied by the takeover talk, a sign that any acquisition would include a sizeable premium. Market watchers say the deal — if agreed — would mark one of the larger software acquisitions in recent times and underscores how seriously legacy vendors view the race for cloud‑native data infrastructure.
The companies did not immediately comment outside normal business hours. If the report proves accurate, expect more lines to be drawn in the cloud‑and‑AI competitive landscape in the coming days.