IBM Completes Acquisition of Confluent, Making Real Time Data the Engine of Enterprise AI and Agents

About this update from International Business Machines Corporation

[{"type":"text","content":"Day-one integrations include IBM watsonx.data, IBM MQ, IBM webMethods Hybrid Integration, and IBM Z ","length":104,"tagName":"p","attribs":{}},{"type":"text","content":"ARMONK, N.Y., March 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today completed its acquisition of Confluent, Inc., the data streaming platform that more than 6,500 enterprises, including 40% of the Fortune 500, rely on to power real-time operations. Together, IBM and Confluent deliver a smart data platform that gives every AI model, agent, and automated workflow the real-time, trusted data needed to operate across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments at scale.","length":472,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"image","alt":"IBM Corporation logo. (PRNewsfoto/IBM Corporation)","displaySize":"","headline":null,"caption":"IBM Corporation logo. (PRNewsfoto/IBM Corporation)","className":"","disableSlideshowImg":false,"size":{"original":{"width":400,"height":209,"url":"https://media.zenfs.com/en/cnwgroup.com/d45a9bbcd48170552486b2c033f7ada0"},"resized":{"url":"https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/LzSYSb8wbD1KAljb1km2Gg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTM2ODtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/cnwgroup.com/d45a9bbcd48170552486b2c033f7ada0","width":400,"height":209}},"href":"https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2319830/IBM_LOGO_1.html","hrefExternal":true,"rel":"nofollow"},{"type":"text","content":"As enterprises move from AI experimentation to production, the critical barrier to success is the data — clean, governed, continuously refreshed —and delivered at the speed and scale AI demands. Yet in most enterprises today, data remains siloed across systems and environments, arriving hours or days after it is generated. Together IBM and Confluent provide the fabric through which AI agents can access the information they need, with the controls, governance, and real-time velocity to put information to work safely and at scale.","length":534,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"IDC estimates that more than one billion new logical applications will emerge by 2028 [1], driven by a new generation of AI that will only deliver value if the data behind it is live, trusted, and continuously flowing. That scale of demand requires a new kind of data foundation, and IBM and Confluent address that challenge directly, giving enterprises a single, governed platform where AI models and agen...

More updates from International Business Machines Corporation