The world of data infrastructure has become a hotbed of activity in the tech industry, with legacy firms like Meta, Salesforce, and ServiceNow making significant acquisitions to stay competitive in the AI landscape.
According to a report by Reuters, deals involving AI software makers have accounted for almost three-quarters of the overall value of tech M&A this year, with data infrastructure companies being highly sought after. “AI without data is like life without oxygen, it doesn’t exist,” said Brian Marshall, global co-head of software investment banking at Citi.
The trend is driven by the need for companies to have robust data infrastructure to support their AI initiatives. “There’s a very strong perception that speed matters a lot, getting there first matters a lot, and that tends to lend itself to doing M&A,” said Matthew Lucas, a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.
Several data infrastructure companies, including Confluent, Collibra, Sigma Computing, Matillion, Dataiku, Fivetran, Boomi, and Qlik, are potential targets for legacy tech providers. Executives from some of these companies have expressed their willingness to be acquired, with Florian Douetteau, co-founder and CEO of Dataiku, stating that fixing “messy, siloed data” is essential for enterprises to deliver on the transformative potential of analytics and AI.
Recent deals in the space include Meta’s $14.8 billion acquisition of a 49% stake in data-labeling company Scale AI and Salesforce’s planned $8 billion acquisition of data integration company Informatica. ServiceNow’s acquisition of data catalogue platform Data.world and IBM’s acquisition of data management provider DataStax are other examples of the trend.
However, dealmakers warn that companies can’t just buy any kind of data and throw it into an AI system and expect good results. “A lot of companies have a huge amount of data, but I think they’re learning that you can’t just funnel every piece of data you have into an AI engine with no organization, and hope that it spits out the right answer,” said Brian Mangino, partner at Latham & Watkins.
Worldwide, generative AI spending is expected to total $644 billion in 2025, an increase of 76.4% from 2024, according to a forecast by technology data provider Gartner. The trend is expected to continue, with data infrastructure companies remaining highly sought after by legacy tech firms looking to stay competitive in the AI landscape.
