Salesforce said it will acquire data management provider Informatica for $8 billion to help strengthen its foundation for artificial intelligence (AI).
The deal, announced May 27, will support what the cloud software provider calls a “unified architecture for agentic AI.” Salesforce plans to integrate Informatica’s tools — including its data catalog, data integration, governance, and metadata management — with the Salesforce platform.
The goal, it said, is to help enterprise brands — including online retailers — deploy and scale smarter, safer AI agents. The systems are designed to learn, reason and act autonomously in areas such as shopping and customer service. All of these functions are part of an emerging field of offerings called agentic commerce, where AI systems assist users by taking actions like managing subscriptions or making purchases.
Why Salesforce is acquiring Informatica
“Together, Salesforce and Informatica will create the most complete, agent-ready data platform in the industry,” Salesforce CEO and chairman Marc Benioff said in the deal announcement.
“By uniting the power of Data Cloud, MuleSoft, and Tableau with Informatica’s industry-leading, advanced data management capabilities, we will enable autonomous agents to deliver smarter, safer, and more scalable outcomes for every company, and significantly strengthen our position in the $150 billion-plus enterprise data market,” he said.
Salesforce said it expects the deal to close early in its fiscal 2027, which begins Feb. 1, 2026, pending regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.
In North America, Salesforce powers ecommerce platforms for 76 of the Top 2000 online retailers, who collectively generated $136.116 billion in online sales in 2024, according to Digital Commerce 360 data. The Top 2000 is Digital Commerce 360’s database ranking North America’s largest online retailers by annual ecommerce sales.
Salesforce eyes agentic AI with Informatica integration
Under the terms of the agreement, Salesforce will acquire all outstanding shares of Informatica that it doesn’t already own for $25 per share in cash. Holders of Informatica’s Class A and Class B-1 common stock will each receive $25 per share.
The roughly $8 billion transaction will be funded through a combination of existing cash and new debt, according to the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Salesforce has had a long relationship with Informatica — as a customer, partner and investor — Benioff said during the company’s latest earnings call.
“We really love the company. We love the people. We’ve loved the leadership,” he said. “And I have to say we probably spent the last 20 years discussing how to bring the companies together.”
Talks to acquire Informatica became more serious in 2024, but the companies failed to agree on terms, The Wall Street Journal reported. Salesforce later reengaged and ultimately outbid other interested parties, including Cloud Software Group and private-equity firm Thoma Bravo, according to the Journal.
Salesforce said the deal will strengthen its foundation for agentic AI. Such AI agents can assist shoppers as they browse and buy, or help merchants manage ecommerce operations like tech support behind the scenes.
Agentforce, Salesforce’s AI platform for building and deploying autonomous agents, launched in late 2024, and is already being adopted by ecommerce and enterprise clients to streamline customer service, hiring and operations.
Informatica brings data expertise and enterprise reach
To support scalable, secure AI agents, Salesforce said it will fold Informatica’s core capabilities — including its data catalog, metadata management, privacy controls, governance and Master Data Management (MDM) — into the Salesforce ecosystem.
The integration will create “a unified architecture for agentic AI,” which can enable AI agents to act “safely, responsibly, and at scale across the modern enterprise,” the company said.
According to Salesforce, Informatica’s tools will help advance one of AI’s biggest enterprise challenges: building trust in automation. Informatica’s stack includes data integration, quality, governance and unified metadata for Agentforce, along with a single data pipeline with Master Data Management (MDM) services on Data Cloud.
“Imagine an AI agent that goes beyond simply seeing data points to understanding their full context — origin, transformation, quality, and governance,” said Steve Fisher, Salesforce’s president and chief technology officer, in the announcement. “This clarity, from a unified Salesforce and Informatica solution, will allow all types of businesses to automate more complex processes and make more reliable AI-driven decisions.”
Salesforce builds on deal momentum as AI revenue rises
If completed, the Informatica deal would be Salesforce’s largest acquisition since it bought Slack for $27.7 billion in 2021. Other deals have included Tableau in 2019 for $15.7 billion and MuleSoft in 2018 for $6.5 billion.
Salesforce also announced on May 15 that it plans to acquire Convergence.ai, a London-based startup focused on AI agents. The company said the deal will expand Agentforce’s capabilities and add new technical talent to its team.
Earlier this month, Informatica launched AI Agent Engineering — a no-code service for building and orchestrating multi-agent AI systems across enterprise cloud platforms. It also announced plans to expand its partnership with Salesforce by integrating Informatica’s Intelligent Data Management Cloud with Agentforce.
Salesforce fiscal Q1 2026 earnings
Since announcing Agentforce in September, Salesforce has closed more than 8,000 deals — about half of which are paid, Benioff said during the company’s Q1 earnings call Wednesday.
“We’ve got 800 customers already in production with Agentforce,” he said, citing clients including OpenTable, Finnair and Falabella.
The call came as Salesforce reported $9.83 billion in revenue for its fiscal Q1 ended April 30, up 8% year over year. Subscription and support revenue totaled $9.3 billion, also up 8%.
Annual recurring revenue tied to Data Cloud and AI surpassed $1 billion, growing more than 120% year over year. Nearly 60% of the top 100 deals in the quarter included Data Cloud and AI, the company said.
Salesforce said the Informatica acquisition will not affect its fiscal 2026 guidance. It expects Q2 revenue between $10.11 billion and $10.16 billion and raised its full-year forecast to between $41.0 billion and $41.3 billion, both up 8% to 9%.
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