IBM to Acquire Confluent to Create Smart Data Platform for Enterprise Generative AI
The following is an email that was sent to all IBMers.
Today, we are announcing that we have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Confluent. This is a decisive step that accelerates our hybrid cloud and AI strategy. It builds an intelligent, always-on core that moves trusted data and insights in real time across environments, applications, and APIs.
Companies want to run operations in real time. Transactions happen in milliseconds. Supply chains adjust instantly. Fraud is detected as it occurs. AI, in particular, magnifies the value of real-time data. Models are only as strong as the signals feeding them. As more companies deploy AI agents, digital workers, and autonomous workflows, they depend on live—not static—data signals.
At the same time, the amount of data moving through enterprises, the number of applications being built, and the role of AI in daily operations are all multiplying by orders of magnitude. AI agents and autonomous systems now require fast, continuous access to data to function. This is opening one of the largest new infrastructure opportunities of the AI era. And it builds on the trusted data integration capabilities enterprises already rely on to run their core systems. Real time is now becoming equally critical alongside these foundations.
Confluent’s platform moves data from where it is created to where it is needed, in real time. It extends our existing capabilities and completes the foundation for an end-to-end Smart Data Platform. Together, this gives clients a way to move, manage, and act on data across batch and real-time systems working as one.
Confluent accelerates what we already do for our clients across data, open source, integration, and AI. It extends our ability to help clients move from insight to action instantly across complex hybrid environments. It also builds naturally on our longstanding commitment to bringing the most powerful open-source technologies into enterprise use—from Red Hat to HashiCorp and now Confluent.
This move is consistent with IBM’s growth strategy. We use both organic growth and targeted M&A to strengthen the platforms our clients rely on most—hybrid cloud, automation, integration, security, and AI. Confluent follows that same disciplined playbook: identify category-defining technology, integrate it deeply, and scale it globally.
I am confident this is the right move for the future of both companies, and I look forward to welcoming Confluent’s employees to IBM once the deal is finalized.
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Author of the Theory of Evolutionary Consciousness | Founder of the Guardians of Life movement | Transdisciplinary vision bridging science and consciousness
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