Amazon plans to acquire AI startup Decart for $7 billion after Anthropic considered bid. TradingKey 2 hours ago I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles. Amazon is in talks to acquire AI startup Decart for up to $7 billion, surpassing a previous $6 billion bid from Anthropic. Decart specializes in software that helps developers switch between different AI chips and develops 'world models' for simulation. This acquisition aligns with Amazon's strategy to boost its AWS Trainium chip ecosystem and compete with Nvidia. The deal remains unannounced and subject to negotiation. TradingKey - Amazon (AMZN) is seeking to further expand its footprint in the AI infrastructure sector through the acquisition of AI startup Decart. According to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter, the two sides are in talks regarding an acquisition that could value the startup at up to $7 billion. If negotiations proceed smoothly and no other bidders join, a deal could be reached in a relatively short timeframe. However, neither party has officially announced an agreement at this point. Headquartered in San Francisco, Decart's core technologies include software tools that help developers switch between different AI chips. As AI companies scramble to secure computing resources, chip supply and computing costs have become crucial factors affecting model development and deployment. Software capable of adapting to different chips helps developers reduce reliance on a single hardware platform while offering companies more options to flexibly manage computing resources. The potential acquisition is closely aligned with Amazon's strategy of developing its own AI chips. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is advancing its proprietary Trainium chip series to reduce AI computing costs and compete in the GPU market dominated by Nvidia (NVDA). AWS reportedly provided Decart with early access to its Trainium3 chips as early as 2025. Their prior technical collaboration set the stage for Amazon to further evaluate Decart's software capabilities. Beyond chip-adaptation technology, Decart is also developing AI "world models" named Lucy and Oasis to generate and simulate three-dimensional real-world environments. This technology enables AI systems to generate scenes and simulate physical processes in virtual environments, offering new development directions for gaming, content generation, and other applications. By acquiring Decart, Amazon stands to gain both chip-software adaptation capabilities and related AI model technologies, further refining its own AI technology ecosystem. Founded in 2023, Decart was co-founded by three Israeli engineers: Dean Leitersdorf, Orian Leitersdorf, and Moshe Shalev. According to PitchBook data, the company has previously raised more than $400 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, and Radical Ventures. In May of this year, Decart was valued at nearly $4 billion. If the transaction is ultimately completed at a valuation of around $7 billion, its value would mark a significant increase from its previous funding round. Amazon is not the only major AI company expressing interest in acquiring Decart. According to previous reports, Anthropic had held acquisition talks with Decart, with a potential deal value of around $6 billion, and conducted due diligence before abandoning the plan in September of this year. Now, Amazon's pursuit of negotiations underscores the growing trend of AI companies competing for critical technology and infrastructure. Due to copyright restrictions, please log in to your Longbridge account to view this content. Thank you for your understanding and support of licensed content.

The San Francisco company’s software makes it easier for developers to switch between different AI chips.

Anthropic bails on $6 billion Decart AI acquisition ahead of planned IPO. Anthropic has abandoned plans to acquire artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure startup Decart AI in a deal previously pegged at about $6 billion. The decision comes after the Claude chatbot creator performed extensive due diligence on the Israeli-founded company. While the acquisition talks have dissolved, the two firms may still pursue alternative commercial partnerships, according to Bloomberg. "Walking away sets a ceiling on what a frontier lab will pay to own compute efficiency instead of contracting for it. Efficiency gains at the silicon and inference layer move fast enough that acquiring them outright locks in today's constraint at tomorrow's price," said Mitch Ashley, vice president and practice lead for Software Lifecycle Engineering and AI-Native Software Engineering at The Futurum Group. "Watch whether the two sign a commercial agreement instead. That is the real tell," Ashley said. "Enterprises signing multi-year AI commitments should treat vendor cost curves as provisional and price the option to move." Representatives for Anthropic and Decart declined to issue official statements. "We don't know exactly why Anthropic walked away. But because it happened after due diligence, it's reasonable to assume that something about the tech, economics, team, or fit did not support the price," said Stephanie Walter, practice leader for AI Stack & Enterprise Application Development at HyperFRAME Research. "Notice that the companies may still work together. This suggests Anthropic may see value in Decart's technology while deciding it doesn't need to own the company." "To me, the interesting piece is that model companies are looking across the AI stack for ways to improve their economics," Walter said. "Building a better model is only part of the challenge. Running it efficiently and reliably matters too." The multibillion-dollar deal was originally designed to enhance Anthropic's computing efficiency as the company scales operations to meet skyrocketing enterprise demand. Decart, which was valued at nearly $4 billion following a $300 million funding round in May backed by NVIDIA Corp., Sequoia Capital, and Benchmark, specializes in chip-optimization software. Its proprietary Decart Optimization Stack (DOS) allows AI models to run more efficiently across varied hardware platforms, including chips from NVIDIA, Amazon.com Inc., and Google. Decart also develops advanced world models such as Oasis and Lucy, the latter capable of real-time video transformation for e-commerce, gaming, and livestreaming applications on platforms like eBay Inc., TikTok, and YouTube. Under CEO Dario Amodei, Anthropic has historically shied away from large-scale corporate acquisitions, choosing instead to channel capital directly into raw computing infrastructure. Ahead of a highly anticipated initial public offering, the San Francisco-based firm has been securing massive multibillion-dollar cloud computing and data-center capacity agreements - including recent commitments with Lambda, Nscale, Fluidstack, and SpaceX - as it seeks to achieve a market valuation on par with top-tier technology giants. The breakdown of the acquisition underscores broader macroeconomic and regulatory headwinds facing high-stakes AI transactions. Cross-border acquisitions involving critical semiconductor capabilities, advanced algorithm optimization, and foreign technology transfer face elevated oversight from international regulatory bodies. Decart's roots in Israel and its focus on underlying chip infrastructure made the prospective transaction a target for potential national security and foreign investment reviews. Furthermore, the failed transaction unfolds alongside ongoing friction between Anthropic and U.S. defense officials. Although Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently indicated that Anthropic had resolved previous disputes with the federal administration, military leadership maintains a cautious stance. Anthropic previously won a court ruling against the military after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth restricted the firm from select defense contracts over Anthropic's refusal to allow its Claude models to be deployed for domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weaponry. Despite the court victory, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael confirmed on social media that the Defense Department's designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk remains active across the department and the broader defense industrial base. As Anthropic shifts its focus back toward organic expansion, the company continues its preparations for a public listing targeted ahead of the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, prioritizing massive computational footprint expansions over direct strategic acquisitions.