IBM's $11B Confluent Acquisition: Event Streaming Infrastructure, Not an AI Platform

In December 2025, IBM announced acquisition of Confluent for $11 billion with the stated goal of creating a &ldquo;Smart Data Platform for Enterprise Generative AI.&rdquo; This framing requires technical examination. Confluent is event streaming infrastructure built on Apache Kafka. Understanding what Confluent does, what it does not do, and why IBM&rsquo;s positioning is misleading requires…