Anthropic's $7 billion Decart deal puts a spotlight on its little-known 23-year-old co-founder and chief scientist. Orian Leitersdorf has largely remained out of the spotlight as his brother Dean and Moshe Shalev built Decart into one of Israel's most closely watched AI startups. Now, the proposed acquisition could make all three founders billionaires and give the 23-year-old scientist a role inside one of the world's leading AI companies. 20:44, 16.08.26 Anthropic's potential $7 billion acquisition of Israeli AI startup Decart would be one of the biggest deals in the country's technology industry. It would also bring new attention to the company's least-known founder, 23-year-old Orian Leitersdorf. Leitersdorf is Decart's chief scientist and the younger brother of CEO and co-founder Dean Leitersdorf, who has been the public face of the company alongside co-founder Moshe Shalev. Orian, by contrast, has largely remained out of the spotlight. His academic record is difficult to overlook. He studied electrical and computer engineering at the Technion and last year, at the age of 22, became the youngest student in the institution's history to complete a doctorate. The previous record was held by his older brother Dean. Now Orian is part of a company that Anthropic is preparing to acquire for approximately $7 billion. The deal is nearing the signing stage, with Anthropic and Decart exchanging advanced drafts of an agreement, although no transaction has yet been signed. Most of the consideration is expected to be paid in Anthropic shares. Market estimates suggest that, if the transaction is completed, each of Decart's founders could ultimately receive more than $1 billion. The potential acquisition has put Decart at the center of an increasingly intense contest among some of the world's largest technology companies. Decart has attracted investment from Nvidia, which was also in advanced negotiations to acquire the company before Anthropic emerged with its offer. Nvidia is believed to have offered a higher valuation, but Decart's shareholders preferred Anthropic. The proposed transaction would value Decart at roughly $7 billion, about 50% above the $4 billion valuation at which it raised its latest funding round only months ago. Founded in 2023, Decart employs about 100 people and has raised $450 million. Its technology is designed to improve the efficiency of AI computing, including by increasing the performance of GPUs and other chips. Industry estimates suggest that its technology can allow AI models to run substantially faster, potentially reducing the enormous computing costs facing AI companies as demand for inference grows. Decart has also developed technology for generating video in real time, with potential applications ranging from gaming to physical AI and robotics. Those capabilities are increasingly relevant to Anthropic as the AI industry moves beyond the race to build ever-larger models and toward the challenge of running those models efficiently at enormous scale.

Anthropic moves to buy AI startup Decart for $6 billion. Anthropic is reportedly in talks to acquire Decart AI for about $6 billion, its largest known deal ahead of a planned IPO. Anthropic PBC is in talks to acquire artificial intelligence startup Decart AI for about $6 billion, according to a Bloomberg report published on August 13, 2026, citing people familiar with the matter. The negotiations have not been finalized and could still fall through before any agreement is signed. The proposed transaction would be the largest known acquisition in Anthropic's history, arriving ahead of a highly anticipated initial public offering, Yahoo Finance reported. Neither Anthropic nor Decart has publicly confirmed the talks as of the coverage date. Decart builds so-called world models that aim to simulate the physical world, as well as software that can reduce the cost of training AI by helping chips work more efficiently, Bloomberg reported. The startup was founded roughly three years ago by Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, and is consistently described by Times of Israel as Israeli-founded. Reuters confirmed the talks separately, citing a source familiar with the matter who said Anthropic is exploring acquisitions that could help it handle growing demand ahead of its public listing. The two reports landed within a day of each other, amplifying market attention on the Claude maker's infrastructure strategy. Decart reached a $4 billion valuation in May 2026 with backing from Nvidia and Toyota, according to TradingKey. The proposed $6 billion price represents roughly a 50% premium within three months, underscoring how quickly investor appetite for AI infrastructure plays has escalated. The Bloomberg scoop followed an earlier exclusive from Israeli outlet Calcalist/CTech on August 10, 2026, which reported that Decart was in advanced talks to be sold for $6 billion to $7 billion to a major international technology company. That report named potential buyers including Nvidia, SpaceX, Amazon, and Nebius, before Anthropic emerged as the leading bidder days later, according to Benzinga. Coverage also indicated that Decart had nearly reached an acquisition agreement with Nvidia before a larger bidder entered the process and negotiations shifted. The negotiations are now taking place primarily in the United States despite Decart's Israeli roots, according to Bloomberg TV reporting. If the transaction closes, Decart's team would join Anthropic's inference and performance organization, strengthening its ability to serve rising demand for Claude models, Bloomberg reported. The move would help Anthropic absorb growing compute workloads while lowering operational costs, a key priority for any frontier-model company preparing for public market scrutiny. Reports further suggest that a completed deal could form the basis of an Anthropic development center in Israel, deepening the country's role in global chip-efficiency and world-model research. That outcome remains speculative, as no official statement has been issued by either company. For African startups building on cloud GPUs from AWS, Google Cloud, and Nvidia-partnered platforms, Decart's efficiency software carries indirect but meaningful weight. Lower global compute costs could make AI infrastructure more affordable for price-sensitive founders across Nigeria and the continent, where access to high-performance hardware remains a persistent bottleneck. Decart's trajectory also offers a case study for African deep-tech founders. A three-year-old company reaching a $4 billion to $7 billion valuation shows how specialized infrastructure startups can attract strategic capital from industrial and cloud players such as Nvidia and Toyota. African accelerators and hubs looking to connect portfolio startups with large corporate partners can study how this deal was structured around a narrow, high-value technical niche. Consolidation among frontier-model companies will likely intensify as Anthropic prepares for its IPO. African regulators and policymakers watching AI infrastructure concentration may consider similar issues locally, especially as Nigerian startups increasingly depend on foreign AI platforms. Bloomberg reporter Natasha Mascarenhas described the development on X as "a rare massive acquisition for the Claude maker & a key development in the race to build more efficient AI infrastructure." The talks remain early stage. Watch for formal confirmation from either company and any regulatory filings that would signal the deal is moving toward completion. If finalized, the acquisition would reshape Anthropic's infrastructure capacity just as public market investors begin pricing its growth story. Help others discover this story