IBM to buy Confluent for $11 billion in all-cash AI data deal

IBM doubles down on AI infrastructure with its biggest software bet in recent years.

IBM on Monday announced it will acquire data streaming platform Confluent in an all-cash deal valued at $11 billion, as the US tech major intensifies its push into AI-led enterprise infrastructure.

IBM will pay $31 per share in cash for all outstanding equity of Confluent. The transaction is expected to close by mid-2026, subject to regulatory approvals.

Confluent shares surged 26 percent in pre-market trade before being halted. IBM stock fell about 1 percent.

Confluent builds real-time data streaming software that allows enterprises to move and process massive volumes of data instantly across cloud systems.

IBM said the acquisition will help it offer a “smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI”, as global data creation is expected to more than double by 2028.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the deal positions the company to become a core provider of real-time data infrastructure for AI workloads across industries.

A pattern of big, all-cash software bets

The Confluent deal extends IBM’s recent acquisition sprint:

HashiCorp (2024): $6.4 billion

Apptio (2023): $4.6 billion

Confluent (2025): $11 billion

All three were all-cash transactions.