DoorDash to buy Instacart in $17 billion deal

DoorDash said Thursday it will buy grocery delivery company Instacart for $17 billion, bringing two major delivery platforms together in a deal that would give customers access to more stores through DoorDash’s network.

DoorDash will pay $65 per Instacart share, CBS News reported. The companies will continue to operate independently until the transaction closes, which DoorDash expects in late 2027 or early 2028. DoorDash plans to keep Instacart’s brand, technology and app after the deal is complete.

The companies said Instacart customers will be able to shop at more than 50,000 additional stores, beyond the nearly 100,000 stores already on its platform. Customers who subscribe to both DashPass and Instacart+ will pay one membership fee instead of two, according to NBC News.

DoorDash said the acquisition would give shoppers more stores to choose from, faster delivery options and access to savings when they shop locally. It also said more supermarkets could use Instacart’s platform to run their websites.

“Instacart has spent years learning to do that well for grocers, while DoorDash has built a delivery network and technology that local stores rely on every day,” DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu said in a statement. “Together, we could give stores of every size more of those tools and unlock the potential of grocery delivery.”

Instacart CEO Chris Rogers said the combination would build on the company’s work with retailers. “Over the last 14 years, Instacart has transformed online grocery by helping retailers of all sizes compete and grow, and joining forces with DoorDash allows us to do even more,” he said.

The deal comes as online grocery shopping has grown. Nearly 150 million Americans shopped for groceries online as of 2025, according to Capital One figures cited by CBS News. Instacart’s business surged during the Covid pandemic, when lockdowns drove consumers to order groceries for delivery, NBC News reported. The network said Instacart has since struggled to find new sources of growth amid competition from Amazon and Walmart’s grocery delivery services, and its stock has made little progress over the past two years.

NBC News described the acquisition as the latest consolidation in delivery, following DoorDash’s purchase of U.K.-based Deliveroo last year. It reported that DoorDash handled about two-thirds of U.S. food delivery volume in 2024, citing Bloomberg data. DoorDash shares rose more than 9% in pre-market trading Thursday, though NBC News said they had fallen by about a third over the past year amid rising costs.

The companies have also faced scrutiny over their treatment of delivery workers. Last month, DoorDash agreed to pay $131.5 million to settle New York City regulators’ allegations that it deprived workers of tips, NBC News reported. “Simply put, we screwed up,” DoorDash said at the time, adding that some workers were underpaid or paid late and that the mistakes were not intentional.