IBM is reportedly closing in on an $11 billion acquisition of Confluent, a move that would mark one of the company’s largest software deals in years and signal a renewed push to strengthen its cloud and data infrastructure capabilities. Confluent, built around Apache Kafka, provides tools for processing high-volume, real-time data streams — everything from financial transactions to clickstream activity — and has become a core component in many organisations’ data pipelines. Bringing those capabilities in-house would give IBM a more direct stake in a market seeing accelerated demand as enterprises scale AI and analytics workloads.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the talks, and Reuters later added that Confluent has been exploring a sale since October with help from an investment bank. The timing aligns with IBM’s broader strategy under CEO Arvind Krishna, who has emphasised improving software performance and stabilising growth after weaker results in the company’s core cloud business. At $11 billion, the deal would dwarf IBM’s $6.4 billion acquisition of HashiCorp earlier in the year, further underscoring how much the company is willing to invest to remain competitive in an increasingly crowded cloud and AI ecosystem.
The rationale behind the move is straightforward. As companies deploy generative AI models and real-time analytics, demand for robust data streaming infrastructure continues to surge. Much of that demand has historically flowed toward cloud hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Amazon, whose platforms integrate tightly with internal data pipelines. Acquiring Confluent would give IBM a more compelling foothold in that space, potentially allowing the company to offer tighter end-to-end integration across its hybrid cloud stack and Red Hat ecosystem. It also positions IBM to better compete for enterprise workloads that rely on continuous data movement — an area where Kafka-based architectures remain dominant.
This potential deal fits into a broader acquisition trend across the sector. Salesforce purchased Informatica for roughly $8 billion earlier this year, part of its effort to deepen its own data management capabilities. Large enterprise software vendors increasingly view data infrastructure as foundational, not auxiliary, to AI adoption, prompting consolidation as they try to secure key components rather than rely on third-party integrations.
Confluent currently carries a market cap of around $8 billion, meaning IBM’s offer would represent a significant premium, consistent with acquisitions involving strategic technology assets. IBM itself is valued at roughly $288 billion, giving it the financial room to pursue such a deal despite recent concerns about slowing cloud software revenue. For Confluent, a sale could provide stability and capital for expansion at a time when the company has been assessing long-term options.
An official announcement could come as early as Monday, though nothing has been confirmed. If completed, the acquisition would mark a substantial escalation of IBM’s cloud strategy, signalling that the company sees real-time data streaming as indispensable to its future growth.
