Report: Anthropic in talks to acquire Israeli startup Decart for $6 billion
The developer of the Claude AI models is in talks to acquire the Israeli company Decart, founded by Unit 8200 alumni. If completed, the deal would be one of the largest exits in Israeli high-tech history. Earlier reports suggesting Elon Musk's interest in the company were denied by the billionaire.
The artificial intelligence company Anthropic, developer of the Claude models, is in talks to acquire the Israeli startup Decart for approximately $6 billion. This was reported Thursday evening by Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the details. As of now, no deal has been signed, and the negotiations may still not come to fruition.
If completed, this would be a significant and unusual acquisition for Anthropic, which is considered one of the main competitors to OpenAI in the AI market. For Decart, founded less than three years ago, the deal could become one of the largest exits in the history of Israeli high-tech.
The potential acquisition comes against the backdrop of a race between AI labs to improve the efficiency of training and running models. Beyond models for creating video and interactive environments in real-time, Decart has developed DOS, a software layer designed to optimize the training and inference processes of AI models and to extract higher performance from existing computing infrastructure. Integrating this technology could help Anthropic reduce Claude's computing costs and accelerate the operation of its models.
From a $4 billion valuation to a $6 billion deal
Decart was founded at the end of 2023 by Dr. Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, alumni of Unit 8200. The company employs about 100 people and operates in the field of AI infrastructure and the development of "world models" — systems that generate and simulate dynamic environments in real-time.
In May, Decart completed a $300 million funding round at a valuation of approximately $4 billion. The round was led by the Radical Ventures fund, with participation from, among others, Nvidia, Sequoia, Benchmark, Adobe Ventures, and Toyota Ventures. Amazon joined as a strategic client. In total, the company has raised more than $450 million since its inception.
Among the company's products are Lucy, a model that allows for creating and editing video in real-time, and Oasis, a model that generates interactive environments used for robotics and physical AI applications.
Musk denied: "Fake news"
The Bloomberg report comes just days after Calcalist reported that Decart was in advanced talks to be sold for $6–7 billion. The publication claimed that the company was "on Musk's radar" and that SpaceX might be the buyer. Amazon and Nebius were also mentioned as possible interested parties.
"Fake news," wrote Elon Musk in response to a post on the X network that presented his company as being in advanced talks to acquire Decart.
