DoorDash in Advanced Talks to Buy Instacart for $17 Billion

DoorDash is in "advanced talks" to buy Instacart in a deal valuing the grocery-delivery platform at roughly $17 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. A deal could wrap up as soon as this week, the Journal said — though it cautioned the talks could still fall through.

Instacart declined to comment. DoorDash did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The market's verdict was split. Instacart shares finished Monday 7.9% higher. DoorDash stock fell 6.1% in the regular session, extending a rough year: the stock is down 25.6% so far amid concerns over cautious consumers and artificial-intelligence disruptions. Instacart is up about 35% year to date.

Why does DoorDash want Instacart?

Analysts say the answer comes down to two rivals: Walmart and Amazon. Wedbush analysts wrote in a Monday note that a deal makes sense because Instacart keeps losing online grocery-delivery business to the two retail giants, which have rapidly built out their delivery networks.

"A combination of strong restaurant delivery plus a marketplace including various grocers from Instacart can be a critical combination against Walmart and Amazon in particular, who continue to push in this market as well," the Wedbush analysts said.

The competitive math is stark. Walmart leads U.S. online grocery sales with a 30.9% market share, according to Wedbush, ahead of Amazon's 23.6%. Instacart and supermarket chain Kroger trail both.

How fast is online grocery growing?

Fast enough to force consolidation. EMarketer forecasts U.S. online grocery sales growth of 12.9% this year, with online sales accounting for 15.5% of overall grocery sales. More people are shopping for groceries online, and the news reports follow years of consolidation in the food-delivery industry.

Zak Stambor, an analyst at eMarketer, said in written remarks on Friday that Instacart's sales have grown more slowly than DoorDash's over the past year. He flagged an existential risk for the platform.

"Instacart risks getting squeezed between retailers building their own digital channels and larger platforms that can bundle grocery with other services, giving consumers more reasons to keep coming back," Stambor said.

Who else was bidding?

The Information reported last week that Instacart was exploring a sale, drawing interest from DoorDash and Uber Technologies. The Journal said Monday that the discussions with Uber are "no longer active."

Bernstein analysts, in a Monday note, said a combined DoorDash-Instacart would be an "indispensable solution" — but any deal would require some combination of debt, cash on hand or equity. They also admitted surprise at the pace.

"Our initial interpretation . . . was that likelihood of a deal was low considering it was [Instacart] approaching DASH/UBER and not vice versa," the Bernstein analysts wrote. "Here we are now."

What happens after a deal?

Plenty of integration questions remain. Wedbush pointed to product and merchant overlap, plus how the Instacart brand would fold into DoorDash's. But the analysts don't expect much regulatory friction. "We don't expect material regulatory pushback given the strength from Amazon and Walmart here," they said.

DoorDash has spent years expanding beyond restaurants into deliveries from other retailers, and has invested in tech infrastructure to handle more complex orders — sometimes at the expense of profits. It has rolled out autonomous delivery vehicles and, like Instacart, enabled purchases via ChatGPT.

If the deal closes this week, the combined company becomes the clearest third force in a U.S. online grocery market still dominated by Walmart and Amazon.