Anthropic nears $7B deal for Israeli AI startup Decart

Anthropic is closing in on a deal to acquire Israeli artificial intelligence startup Decart in a transaction valued at $6 billion to $7 billion, which would represent the Claude maker's largest known acquisition as it prepares for a public listing.

Deal Takes Shape

Bloomberg first reported on August 13 that Anthropic was in talks to buy Decart for approximately $6 billion, with Reuters confirming that the Nvidia ↗ 2.78%-backed startup was in acquisition discussions. By this weekend, the deal had progressed further. Calcalist reported that the parties are now exchanging advanced drafts of the agreement, with the transaction potentially valued closer to $7 billion and expected to close as soon as next month.calcalistech+2

Decart's founders, Dr. Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, along with largest investor Sequoia Capital, favor Anthropic as the buyer despite a reportedly higher offer from Nvidia, according to Calcalist. Google Alphabet Inc. ↗ 0.78% and SpaceX have also been identified as potential alternative acquirers, though Anthropic is considered the frontrunner.calcalistech

Strategic Rationale

Decart develops software that makes AI chips work more efficiently during both training and inference, the process of running trained models to generate responses. Bloomberg reported that the acquisition is intended to help Anthropic's computing infrastructure absorb growing demand. The company's technology can reportedly allow AI models to run up to eight times faster than average across multiple chip architectures, including those from Nvidia, Google, and Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. ↘ 0.35%.bloomberg+1

Decart, founded in 2023, employs roughly 100 people and has raised $450 million to date. Its technology extends beyond optimization to include real-time video generation and simulated environments for robotics training.calcalistech+1

IPO Implications

The timing is closely tied to Anthropic's planned initial public offering, expected in September or October. The company has filed a confidential prospectus with plans for a Nasdaq listing. Calcalist reported that Anthropic's second-quarter revenue jumped 14-fold year-over-year to $11.5 billion, and the company reached positive EBITDA for the first time.calcalistech

If completed, the deal would give Anthropic its first development center in Israel while adding a team focused on inference optimization at a moment when computing efficiency has become a central competitive battleground among frontier AI companies.calcalistech