DoorDash to acquire Instacart for $17 billion
The tie-up would bring the two biggest US delivery apps together in a push against Walmart and Amazon.
DoorDash has agreed to buy Instacart for about $17 billion, uniting the two largest US app-based delivery companies. It is paying $65 a share in cash and stock, 26% above Instacart’s price before reports of the talks emerged.
DoorDash pitches the deal as a way for local grocers to compete with Walmart and Amazon, which are building their own warehouses, delivery fleets and AI shopping tools. Instacart brings supermarket relationships and the software behind many grocers’ own online shops; DoorDash brings its courier network.
That overlap worries critics, who say owning grocers’ storefront technology would give DoorDash leverage over the stores it claims to help. Bernstein estimates the combined group would hold about 88% of third-party delivery, and says the share price implies a 60% chance the deal fails. The Federal Trade Commission, already focused on affordability, has previously examined Instacart’s pricing experiments.
DoorDash has pledged that grocers can keep using any delivery platform and that DashPass and Instacart+ members will pay one subscription instead of two. Closing is expected at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028, a timetable that suggests a long antitrust review.
