Full Breakdown
Amazon Negotiates $7 B Acquisition of Israeli AI Startup Decart
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Event
On October 11, 2026, the *Wall Street Journal* reported that Amazon.com Inc. is in advanced talks to acquire Decart, an Israeli-founded AI startup, for roughly $7 billion. The parties have not finalized an agreement, and the negotiations could still collapse or be overtaken by another bidder.
Background & Context
Decart, founded in 2023 by Israeli engineers Dean Leitersdorf, Orian Leitersdorf, and Moshe Shalev, operates out of San Francisco. Its technology lets AI models run efficiently across chips from different manufacturers, addressing demand for flexible, cost-effective compute resources.
Earlier interest included a near-term offer from Nvidia, later superseded by talks with Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot. Anthropic pursued a deal valued between $6 billion and $7 billion but withdrew after due diligence in September 2026; reasons were not disclosed.
Timeline
- 2023 – Decart founded.
- May 2026 – Raised $300 million in a round led by Radical Ventures (including Nvidia) at a valuation of about $4 billion; total funding exceeds $400 million.
- August 2026 – Nvidia reportedly close to acquiring Decart before Anthropic entered negotiations.
- September 2026 – Anthropic abandoned its acquisition attempt after due diligence.
- October 11 2026 – *Wall Street Journal* reports Amazon’s $7 billion negotiation.
Data & Statistics
- Reported acquisition price: ? $7 billion, a premium of roughly 75 % over the May 2026 valuation.
- Total capital raised: > $400 million.
- Investors: Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, Radical Ventures, and Nvidia.
- Core products: Lucy (real-time video-editing model) and Oasis (world-model generating interactive 3-D environments).
- Amazon’s related AI hardware: early access granted to Decart for the Trainium 3 chip in 2025; Trainium series competes with Nvidia GPUs.
- Comparative Amazon acquisitions: MGM for $6.5 billion (2022) and Globalstar for ? $11 billion (2024).
Official Statements & Responses
Amazon declined to comment outside regular business hours. Decart also did not respond. The *Wall Street Journal* noted that AWS already serves as a strategic customer of Decart and provided early access to Trainium 3 in 2025.
Why It Matters / Impact
If completed, the deal would be one of Israel’s largest tech exits and a major Amazon acquisition. Decart’s cross-chip software could help AWS attract developers seeking hardware-agnostic solutions, potentially lowering compute costs. Control of Lucy and Oasis would expand Amazon’s capabilities in real-time video editing and simulated environment generation—areas relevant to cloud gaming, robotics, and autonomous driving.
Strategically, the transaction aligns with Amazon’s push to develop proprietary AI chips (Trainium) and reduce reliance on Nvidia GPUs. Integrating Decart’s software could improve the efficiency of Amazon’s hardware, making its cloud platform more competitive in the AI-infrastructure market.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
Public sources agree Anthropic’s withdrawal followed due diligence, but specific reasons remain undisclosed. No other bidders have been identified beyond Nvidia’s earlier interest and the current Amazon talks. Valuation and closing timeline remain uncertain, as talks could still fall apart or be supplanted by another suitor.
