DoorDash agrees to buy Instacart for $17 billion: what the deal means
DoorDash will pay $65 a share for Instacart, valuing the grocery app at about $17 billion. The deal needs antitrust approval and may not close until 2028.
The essentials: DoorDash announced on October 29, 2026 that it will buy the grocery delivery app Instacart for $65 a share. The offer values Instacart at about $17 billion. The two companies expect the deal to close at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028, once regulators and Instacart shareholders have approved it.
What are the terms?
According to DoorDash’s announcement, the $65 price is a 26% premium over Instacart’s closing share price on October 22, the last trading day before media reports of a possible deal. Instacart’s board approved the agreement unanimously.
| Term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Price | $65.00 per Instacart share |
| Equity value | About $17 billion |
| Payment | At least 75% cash, at most 25% in DoorDash shares |
| Financing | Cash on hand plus a bridge loan from JPMorgan |
| Expected closing | End of 2027 or first half of 2028 |
| Approvals needed | US antitrust review, plus Canada and Israel; Instacart shareholder vote |
Shareholders holding about 19% of Instacart’s shares have already agreed to vote in favour, DoorDash says.
Why does DoorDash want Instacart?
DoorDash, best known for restaurant delivery, wants a bigger share of online grocery shopping. “Grocery is one of the hardest things to get right online,” said Tony Xu, DoorDash’s co-founder and chief executive. Instacart’s chief executive, Chris Rogers, said that “joining forces with DoorDash allows us to do even more”.
DoorDash says it will keep the Instacart brand and app. It promises Instacart customers access to more than 50,000 additional stores. It also estimates members would save about $100 million a year if DashPass and Instacart+ were combined into a single subscription. The companies will keep operating separately until the deal closes.
Will regulators allow it?
That is the main open question. Reuters noted, as reported by The Next Web, that combining two of the largest US delivery platforms could draw antitrust scrutiny. DoorDash already discussed buying Instacart in 2021, when the grocery app was valued at $40 billion to $50 billion. Those talks ended over antitrust concerns under the Biden administration.
Emarketer analyst Zak Stambor said the Trump administration has shown “greater willingness” to approve deals, possibly with conditions such as divestitures. DoorDash has made commitments that it says will protect local grocers, including no grocery exclusivity agreements.
How did we get here?
On October 23, The Information reported that Instacart was exploring a sale and had held talks with DoorDash and Uber. Instacart shares jumped 9.2% to $56.44 that day, while DoorDash fell 3.5%. The talks with Uber later fizzled, according to The Information and Bloomberg.
Instacart published its third-quarter results on the same day as the deal:
| Instacart, Q3 2026 | Value | Change on a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
| Gross transaction value | $10.53 billion | +15% |
| Revenue | $1.095 billion | +17% |
| Orders | 91.4 million | +10% |
| Net income | $147 million | +2% |
Because of the pending merger, Instacart cancelled its November 5 earnings call and suspended its financial guidance.
This article was prepared with the help of AI tools from the sources listed above, then reviewed by our editors before publication. Read our editorial policy
