DoorDash Nears $17 Billion Deal for Instacart, Reports Say

DoorDash is in advanced talks to buy Instacart for roughly $17 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, and a deal could be announced as soon as this week.

The Journal first reported the discussions Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. A source told Reuters an agreement could come as early as Wednesday, though the sources cautioned the deal is not guaranteed. Instacart had also held active talks with Uber before DoorDash emerged as the likely buyer.

The price represents a premium of about $4 billion over Instacart's market value, which stood at roughly $13 billion at Friday's close. Investors reacted fast on Monday: Instacart shares climbed about 8 percent, while DoorDash fell around 6 percent.

What's driving the deal?

The numbers behind the tie-up show why Instacart may be running out of options. U.S. credit and debit card data from Consumer Edge shows DoorDash's share of restaurant and grocery delivery spending rose from about 44 percent in the second quarter of 2021 to nearly 59 percent in the third quarter of 2026. Instacart's share fell from roughly 26 percent to 18 percent over the same stretch.

Michael Gunther, senior vice president of research and market intelligence at Consumer Edge, said the shift partly reflects DoorDash expanding into grocery, convenience and other retail categories historically associated with Instacart.

"The boundaries between restaurant, grocery and broader retail delivery have become increasingly blurred," Gunther said.

For restaurants, the mechanism here is straightforward. A combined DoorDash-Instacart would control a single marketplace spanning restaurant meals, supermarket orders and convenience retail. That scale strengthens the buyer's hand when negotiating commission rates with both restaurant operators and grocery retailers, and it consolidates consumer ordering data across categories that used to compete separately.

A spending spree across the sector

The $17 billion price tag would cap years of consolidation by DoorDash. The company acquired U.K.-based Deliveroo for approximately $3.9 billion and Finland-based Wolt for $8.1 billion. It also bought restaurant technology company SevenRooms in 2025.

Competitors have been writing similar checks:

• Uber agreed this year to acquire Germany-based Delivery Hero in a deal valued at $14.8 billion
• Uber bought Postmates in a $2.65 billion transaction announced in 2020
• Wonder completed its acquisition of Grubhub in early 2025, paying $150 million in cash and assuming $500 million in debt

What does this change for operators?

If the deal closes, restaurant groups that rely on DoorDash for delivery would face an aggregator with a far larger total order base, spread across grocery and retail as well as dining. That could mean more leverage on fees — or, if DoorDash uses Instacart's retailer relationships to grow food sales, new competition for grocery-adjacent concepts. Either way, the negotiating counterparty just got bigger.

Nothing is signed yet, and sources stress the agreement could still fall apart. But with a potential announcement as early as Wednesday, operators and investors won't wait long to find out whether the delivery sector shrinks from three major players to two.