By Erik van Klinken
Publication Date: 2025-12-08 13:52:00
Update – IBM confirms an $11 billion (€9.4 billion) agreement with Confluent. The acquisition is intended to strengthen IBM’s AI and hybrid cloud offerings. Confluent offers a platform built on Apache Kafka for real-time data streams.
The Confluent platform connects, processes, and manages data and events in real time. This is crucial for AI applications. “IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster,” says Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM. The combination should ensure reliable communication and data flows between environments, applications, and APIs. “With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI.”
The deal is expected to close in mid-2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. It is IBM’s largest acquisition since acquiring HashiCorp for $6.4 billion, which was announced in April 2024.
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