As AI becomes a driving force and tool for global M&A

The rise of generative AI in recent years is not merely a technological trend but has become a core catalyst to reshape the growth strategy of businesses. The global M&A market is on track to recover strongly with the total transaction value in the first nine months of 2025 reaching $1.93 trillion, up 10% year-on-year[1]. In particular, AI plays the role of the "heart" of megadeals (over $5 billion) and is a vital factor that forces old competitors to shake hands to survive.

More than just an acquisition goal, AI is also becoming a powerful tool to change the way M&A deals are done.

In the AI era, businesses no longer have enough time to develop their own internal technology capabilities from scratch. The "buy instead of build" strategy has become a top priority.

1. When AI is the driving force for businesses to do M&A

Big Tech corporations are making huge purchases to fill gaps in infrastructure, software and processing chips. Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta are expected to invest more than $320 billion in AI technology and expand data centers in 2026 alone[2]. AI is causing such drastic disruption that it forces market leaders to merge to maintain a scale and data advantage. Coursera's $2.5 billion acquisition of rival Udemy in December 2025 is a good example[3]. Both companies have found that the static course library model is losing ground to AI-based interactive learning systems like ChatGPT.³ Combining Coursera's 191 million learners and Udemy's 82 million learners and 85,000 instructors creates a huge data ecosystem to train "native AI" models, helping to personalize learning paths at scale that smaller competitors can't replicate. This is considered the biggest motivation for Coursera and Udemy to "bear" hand in hand.

This deal is not just a mere accumulation of market share, but a strategic response to a fundamental change in learner behavior and business needs in the AI era.

The deal was made possible through a full stock swap at the rate of 0.800 Coursera shares per Udemy share, valuing the combined entity at approximately $2.5 billion. The 26% premium for Udemy shareholders shows an appreciation of the value of the dynamic content market that Udemy owns. The deal also showed the long-term optimism of shareholders when Udemy shares jumped nearly 28% right after the announcement of the parties involved in the deal.

The management of Coursera and Udemy both expect to achieve a deal that will help both thrive in the new period. The factor to put confidence in the deal is by eliminating duplicate technology systems and optimizing the sales team for the business segment. The newly formed unit after the merger is expected to focus on investing in tools such as: (1) Coursera Coach: Personalized AI Learning Wizard. (2) AI-assisted content creation: Allows instructors to quickly create microlearning content from long courses. (3) Unified Skill Recognition System: Helps organizations measure and track the skills of their employees throughout their careers.

2. AI accelerates the process of executing an M&A deal

More than just an acquisition goal, AI is also becoming a powerful tool to change the way M&A deals are done. Currently, the majority of organizations have integrated generative AI into their M&A workflows.

AI accelerates the M&A supply search and inspection stage

AI helps identify potential targets that traditional methods may miss by continuously analyzing market signals such as revenue growth trajectories, hiring trends, and social sentiment. AI-powered platforms allow M&A teams to handle more opportunities with the same number of employees, turning AI into a powerful tool to find target business data, thereby quickly understanding and shaping the business audience that wants to make deals.

Due diligence becomes more efficient and faster

This is the stage when AI brings the most pronounced effect. AI-powered development tools are capable of scanning thousands of legal documents, contracts, and financial records in hours instead of weeks. AI can automatically detect potential risks such as:

• Unfavorable "change of control" provisions.
• Corporate culture incompatibility through employee evaluation analysis.
• ESG and regulatory compliance risks in multiple jurisdictions.
• Assess the possibility of mergers and acquisitions of global competition control/antitrust authorities.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui Hoang Phuong speaks at AI4VN 2025. Source: Government Newspaper

3. Legal Barriers and Challenges in M&A Activities Related/Using AI

The explosion of AI in M&A activities has also entailed unprecedented scrutiny from antitrust agencies around the globe.

Regulators are paying particular attention to "acqui-hire" and strategic investments with control over cloud infrastructure. A good example is Microsoft's hiring of the entire core team from Inflection AI by 2024 without going through the traditional M&A process[4]. By the end of 2025, the FTC has officially closed this loophole with new HSR (Hart-Scott-Rodino) rules, which require all "talent-based" deals to be made public or license the transfer of control of assets. the main product[5].

Cross-border M&A activities in the AI sector are also facing strict restrictions aimed at preventing the transfer of sensitive technology. Besides, antitrust agencies are looking into whether the merger creates excessive control over AI training data. In the Coursera-Udemy deal, while the global education market is huge, its dominance in the mass online course segment may prompt regulators to demand divestment measures or commit to expanding data compatibility.

4. The prospects of the M&A market in the AI era

By 2026, experts forecast that M&A activities will no longer be a single event but become an essential part of the business operating model.

Future M&A deals will focus on the acquisition of "virtual coworkers" – AI agents capable of performing multi-step workflows independently. Post-merger platforms like Coursera will not only sell courses, but will provide "continuous professional growth" through AI systems that are deeply integrated into employees' daily workflows.

Instead of acquiring revenue market share, businesses will acquire companies that are able to validate and measure HR skills with AI, in order to address the widening global skills gap.

AI is playing a "dual engine" role in global M&A activities: both as an acquisition target to change the nature of the product and as a tool to optimize the merger process itself. Acquisitions like Coursera and Udemy are an affirmation that in the era of artificial intelligence, scale and data are the new barriers to entry. However, sustainable success will not come from mere technology acquisition, but from the ability to integrate the creative soul of humans with the analytical power of machines to create new values for society.