<p>Bengaluru: IBM has placed one of its biggest bets in recent times by acquiring data streaming platform Confluent for $11 billion, and analysts observe that this will significantly boost its competitiveness in the enterprise AI ecosystem.</p>.<p>Confluent provides an open-source enterprise data streaming platform that connects, processes and governs reusable and reliable data and events in real time, foundational for the deployment of AI. In the last four years, Confluent’s total addressable market (TAM) has doubled from $50 billion to $100 billion in 2025.</p>.<p>Confluent CEO and co-founder Jay Kreps is one of the original creators of Apache Kafka, an open-source technology that is used by companies to handle real-time data feeds. During his recent visit to Bengaluru, Kreps had said that over 30% of the world’s Kafka community members were in APAC, and India alone was home to the second-largest Kafka community globally, after the US.</p>.IBM's new real-time data analysis software.<p>The Confluent acquisition gives IBM a powerful real-time data streaming foundation built on Kafka. It strengthens IBM’s hybrid-cloud and AI stack by enabling seamless data movement across systems — something enterprises struggle with today. With fresher, more accessible data, IBM can offer a fully-integrated ‘data-to-AI’ pipeline, improving performance, scalability, and reliability for enterprise clients, AI & Beyond co-founder Jaspreet Bindra told DH.</p>.<p>“With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI,” IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said in a statement.</p>.<p>Enterprise AI has become essential for competitiveness. Companies are generating more data than ever, and AI is the only scalable way to make sense of it — for automation, forecasting, customer insights, and operational efficiency. “But AI is only as strong as the data behind it, which makes modern, real-time data infrastructure indispensable. Businesses that don’t adopt enterprise AI risk falling behind,” Bindra said.</p>.<p>With this acquisition, IBM can enhance its dominance in AI. “By combining Confluent’s data streaming with its AI and hybrid-cloud offerings, IBM strengthens its position as a comprehensive enterprise AI provider. Instead of just offering AI tools, IBM can now deliver an end-to-end platform — from data ingestion to AI outcomes. This significantly boosts its competitiveness in the enterprise AI ecosystem,” he further said.</p>.<p>According to IDC, over one billion new logical applications will emerge by 2028, reshaping technology architectures across industries. In order to drive productivity in operations, these applications, as well as AI agents, need access to connected and trusted data in real-time.</p>.<p>Gartner Senior Director Analyst Andrew Humphreys said IBM’s announcement makes clear that its main focus for the acquisition is real-time data streaming to support AI. They are looking to provide the platform to move, process and govern data to support AI as an important new battleground. He said that Salesforce had a similar focus in its acquisition of Informatica. “This enables IBM to compete more effectively against Salesforce, Oracle, etc. as being the platform to control and access your data and feed AI,” he added.</p>.<p>IBM and Confluent both frame event stream processing as essential ‘connective tissue’ for delivering real-time, context-aware data to AI agents.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: IBM has placed one of its biggest bets in recent times by acquiring data streaming platform Confluent for $11 billion, and analysts observe that this will significantly boost its competitiveness in the enterprise AI ecosystem.</p>.<p>Confluent provides an open-source enterprise data streaming platform that connects, processes and governs reusable and reliable data and events in real time, foundational for the deployment of AI. In the last four years, Confluent’s total addressable market (TAM) has doubled from $50 billion to $100 billion in 2025.</p>.<p>Confluent CEO and co-founder Jay Kreps is one of the original creators of Apache Kafka, an open-source technology that is used by companies to handle real-time data feeds. During his recent visit to Bengaluru, Kreps had said that over 30% of the world’s Kafka community members were in APAC, and India alone was home to the second-largest Kafka community globally, after the US.</p>.IBM's new real-time data analysis software.<p>The Confluent acquisition gives IBM a powerful real-time data streaming foundation built on Kafka. It strengthens IBM’s hybrid-cloud and AI stack by enabling seamless data movement across systems — something enterprises struggle with today. With fresher, more accessible data, IBM can offer a fully-integrated ‘data-to-AI’ pipeline, improving performance, scalability, and reliability for enterprise clients, AI & Beyond co-founder Jaspreet Bindra told DH.</p>.<p>“With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI,” IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said in a statement.</p>.<p>Enterprise AI has become essential for competitiveness. Companies are generating more data than ever, and AI is the only scalable way to make sense of it — for automation, forecasting, customer insights, and operational efficiency. “But AI is only as strong as the data behind it, which makes modern, real-time data infrastructure indispensable. Businesses that don’t adopt enterprise AI risk falling behind,” Bindra said.</p>.<p>With this acquisition, IBM can enhance its dominance in AI. “By combining Confluent’s data streaming with its AI and hybrid-cloud offerings, IBM strengthens its position as a comprehensive enterprise AI provider. Instead of just offering AI tools, IBM can now deliver an end-to-end platform — from data ingestion to AI outcomes. This significantly boosts its competitiveness in the enterprise AI ecosystem,” he further said.</p>.<p>According to IDC, over one billion new logical applications will emerge by 2028, reshaping technology architectures across industries. In order to drive productivity in operations, these applications, as well as AI agents, need access to connected and trusted data in real-time.</p>.<p>Gartner Senior Director Analyst Andrew Humphreys said IBM’s announcement makes clear that its main focus for the acquisition is real-time data streaming to support AI. They are looking to provide the platform to move, process and govern data to support AI as an important new battleground. He said that Salesforce had a similar focus in its acquisition of Informatica. “This enables IBM to compete more effectively against Salesforce, Oracle, etc. as being the platform to control and access your data and feed AI,” he added.</p>.<p>IBM and Confluent both frame event stream processing as essential ‘connective tissue’ for delivering real-time, context-aware data to AI agents.</p>