BCG devotes a section of its 2026 M&A Report to how companies outside the technology sector should acquire AI capabilities. The instinct to buy is common, but models and tools are advancing so fast that one risks paying a control premium for capabilities soon outdated or commoditized. Many are available off the shelf or through a partner: the challenge is knowing where ownership truly matters.
The market has transformed. AI-related acquisitions surged in 2025 across every layer of the stack, with 1,355 deals, and non-tech buyers accounted for the majority of acquisitions of software and AI application companies. Alliances and joint ventures more than doubled between 2024 and 2025, exceeding 1,300, and now rival M&A. Investors welcome these deals: announcement returns rise from 0.3% for hardware to 0.5% for software, and exceed 0.8% when the buyer of AI software is not a tech company, while tech buyers trigger almost no reaction. This premium rests on an expectation, which raises the bar for results.
The authors propose evaluating each capability according to its ability to differentiate the company and its availability on the market. This yields four options: adopt a market solution, partner with a provider, build from one's own assets, or buy a rare asset. The guiding principle is to choose the lightest structure that provides the necessary access or control while preserving the freedom to change course. Six signals refine the choice: differentiation, urgency and commoditization, market capacity, integration and governance, target economics, and optionality and dependency. Most often, the decision tilts toward partnering or building. A lighter structure is not necessarily simpler: nine out of ten industry-tech partnerships miss their objectives, hence the importance of clarifying data, intellectual property, portability, and exit terms.
Three sectors illustrate the framework. In industry, Schneider Electric acquires Cognite to control the data layer of its products. In consumer goods, L'Oréal partners with Nvidia, its advantage lying in its biological data on skin and hair. In energy, Shell allies with SparkCognition for exploration. The common rule: buy when AI becomes a competitive advantage, partner when it is shared infrastructure. Whatever the structure, the company must absorb the capability and reshape its workflows. The winners will make ownership the exception and adaptability the rule.