DoorDash in Advanced Talks to Buy Instacart for $17 Billion

DoorDash is in advanced talks to acquire Instacart for roughly $17 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The deal could be finalized as soon as this week, though the paper notes it remains tentative enough to collapse. Neither company has confirmed the talks; Fast Company has reached out to both for comment.

The market delivered its verdict on the report immediately. DoorDash shares (Nasdaq: DASH) closed down 6.10% on Monday, extending a 25.63% year-to-date decline. Instacart (Nasdaq: CART) moved the other way, closing up 7.87% and standing 35.35% higher year-to-date.

Investors, in short, rewarded the target and punished the buyer — a classic signal of skepticism about who captures value in a $17 billion consolidation.

What would DoorDash actually be buying?

Instacart's core business is home grocery shopping and delivery. DoorDash, built on restaurant delivery, has pushed into groceries on its own. Buying Instacart would hand the company a much stronger foothold in that market without waiting years to build share organically.

The strategic logic is straightforward; the execution risk is not. A combined entity would pair a faster-growing restaurant delivery platform with a slower-growing grocery business — and pay $17 billion for the privilege.

There is precedent. DoorDash bought the European food delivery service Wolt in 2022, giving it a track record in absorbing acquisitions. Whether that deal's playbook transfers to a US grocery incumbent of Instacart's scale is an open question the report does not address.

Instacart was previously in sale talks with Uber, according to the report, but those discussions have fizzled out. DoorDash's approach appears to be the second bite at a sale process that already lost one suitor — a detail worth weighing before assuming this deal closes.

How do the two companies' finances compare?

DoorDash carries a market value of about $73 billion, meaning the $17 billion price under discussion equals roughly a quarter of the buyer's own worth. Its most recent earnings report was positive: second-quarter revenue rose 36% year over year to $3.28 billion, beating Wall Street's expectation of $3.16 billion, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC.

Instacart is growing more slowly. Its second-quarter revenue rose 14% year over year to $1.04 billion — less than a third of DoorDash's quarterly top line, and at roughly a third of the growth rate.

The premium, then, is being paid for market position in groceries, not momentum. DoorDash's shareholders, already down more than a quarter this year, appear to be questioning exactly that arithmetic.

What could still go wrong?

Plenty. The talks are tentative, per the Journal, and could fall through before any agreement is signed. Neither company has commented publicly, and no deal terms beyond the approximate price have been reported.

Instacart's earlier talks with Uber ended without a transaction, which shows how these negotiations can dissolve. A deal announced this week would still face shareholder and regulatory scrutiny before closing — hurdles the report does not explore.

For now, the food delivery sector is watching a single number: $17 billion. Whether it becomes a deal or a footnote depends on talks that, by the Journal's own account, remain fragile.