IBM recently announced that it will acquire data streaming company Confluent for $11 billion, with a price per share of $31. Confluent is a platform built on Apache Kafka that helps organizations move, process, and manage data in real time. This acquisition highlights the increasing competition among tech giants to strengthen the data infrastructure required for generative and intelligent AI.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna stated that this deal represents an important step toward building an intelligent data platform. He emphasized that the combination of IBM and Confluent will help businesses deploy generative and intelligent AI faster, enabling reliable data flow and communication between environments, applications, and APIs.

The market for Confluent is expanding rapidly, with its total addressable market expected to grow from $50 billion in 2021 to $100 billion by 2025. The platform is widely used across industries, ensuring clarity, consistency, and reliability of data as it flows between applications — which is critical for the performance of AI models.

This acquisition will strengthen IBM's existing product lines in hybrid cloud and automation, and further deepen its commitment to open source technologies. IBM aims to achieve a unified workflow for data management, analysis, and AI through the integration of Confluent, simplifying customers' complex existing data solutions.

The transaction is expected to be completed in mid-2026, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. IBM expects the deal to improve adjusted EBITDA in the first year after completion and generate free cash flow growth in the second year. Confluent currently has more than 6,500 customers, including over 40% of the Fortune 500 companies.

By integrating Confluent's fully managed cloud products and hybrid deployment models, IBM will be able to build a more comprehensive data platform to support large-scale AI applications and governance. As the demand for real-time data streams continues to grow, the value of AI depends not only on powerful models but also on high-quality, connected, and timely data.

Key Points:

💰 IBM acquires Confluent for $11 billion, strengthening AI data infrastructure.

📈 Confluent's market is expected to reach $100 billion by 2025.

🔗 The acquisition will help IBM integrate data management, analytics, and AI into a unified workflow.