Grocery Delivery: DoorDash Pitches $17 Billion Instacart Buyout

DoorDash has proposed a $17 billion acquisition of Instacart, a move that would consolidate the grocery delivery sector under one owner. The offer values Instacart at a premium relative to its current $14 billion market capitalization. DoorDash, valued at $73 billion, stated that the Instacart brand and application will remain operational. Existing Instacart shoppers will continue fulfilling orders as they do now, and grocers retain the option to work with either platform.

Instacart, founded in 2012, focuses on grocery and convenience store deliveries in the United States and Canada. The company employs 600,000 independent contractor shoppers who completed 338 million orders in the previous year. DoorDash, established in San Francisco in 2013, started as a restaurant delivery service before expanding into pet food and electronics. It operates in 40 countries and processed over 3 billion orders last year through 9 million independent delivery workers.

DoorDash entered the grocery market in 2020 during a spike in pandemic-era demand. Early partnerships faced hesitation from major retailers. Kroger agreed to work with DoorDash in 2022 but initially limited delivery to flowers, sushi, and prepared meals from a small subset of stores. The relationship expanded in the fall of 2025, allowing DoorDash to list the full inventory of all 2,700 U.S. Kroger locations. In September 2026, DoorDash added Costco to its delivery network.

Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash, described the deal as a combination of Instacart's grocery expertise with DoorDash's logistics capabilities. "Grocery is one of the hardest things to get right online. Someone has to pick a ripe avocado, find a substitute you’d choose yourself, and get the ice cream to you before it melts," Xu said in a statement. He added that the merger would provide stores of all sizes with better tools for online fulfillment.

Market research from Consumer Edge indicates that DoorDash's growth has eroded Instacart's position. Five years ago, Instacart held 26% of spending on U.S. delivery platforms, a share that has since dropped to 18%. During that same period, DoorDash's share increased from 44% to 59%. Uber Eats maintained a stable share of just under 20%.

The acquisition would complicate existing retailer partnerships. Instacart currently provides delivery for Walmart, while DoorDash ceased Walmart delivery services in 2022. The outcome of that specific partnership remains undetermined as the deal proceeds.

Instacart customers would gain access to 50,000 additional stores through the DoorDash network upon completion of the merger.