Anthropic is nearing a $7 billion deal to acquire Israeli AI startup Decart, with the parties exchanging advanced drafts of the agreement. The acquisition, favored by Decart's founders and Sequoia Capital, positions Anthropic for significant growth ahead of its potential Nasdaq IPO.
TL;DR
- Anthropic is close to acquiring Decart for $7 billion, outbidding Nvidia.
- The deal is significant as Anthropic prepares for a potential IPO, with a valuation of up to $2 trillion.
- Decart's technology, which can improve the performance of AI chips, is strategically valuable for Anthropic.
What happened
Anthropic, the AI company founded by former OpenAI employees, is nearing a deal to acquire Israeli AI startup Decart for approximately $7 billion. The acquisition is favored by Decart's founders, Dr. Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, as well as Sequoia Capital, Decart's largest investor. The deal is expected to be signed as soon as next month, ahead of Anthropic's expected September IPO.
Advanced negotiations between Decart and Nvidia were halted after Anthropic emerged with its offer. Nvidia is believed to have offered a higher valuation than Anthropic, partly because it was already an investor in Decart. However, Decart's shareholders preferred Anthropic as the buyer, as it would give the company an entry point into Israel's AI ecosystem.
Why it matters
The acquisition is significant for Anthropic as it prepares for a potential Nasdaq IPO, with a valuation of up to $2 trillion. The deal would demonstrate Anthropic's willingness to make a major strategic investment immediately before entering the public markets, while also preventing a rival from acquiring technology that could improve the economics of AI inference.
For Decart, the sale would represent a rapid rise, with the company founded just three years ago. The acquisition by Anthropic would make Decart the foundation for establishing the company's development center in Israel, potentially placing Anthropic's name alongside Decart's offices in Tel Aviv. The deal would also mark the arrival of one of the world's leading AI companies in Israel at a critical moment in the industry's evolution.
Key facts
- Anthropic is nearing a $7 billion deal to acquire Israeli AI startup Decart.
- The acquisition is favored by Decart's founders and Sequoia Capital.
- Anthropic's second-quarter revenue jumped 14-fold to $11.5 billion, from $787 million in the same quarter of 2025.
- Anthropic's annualized revenue is estimated at $47 billion, compared with approximately $40 billion for OpenAI.
- Decart employs approximately 100 people and has raised $450 million to date.
- Decart's technology can improve the performance of AI chips, potentially reducing the amount of computing power required to run AI models.
- Anthropic's prospectus has been filed confidentially, and a public offering is expected in September or October.
- The market is already discussing a potential valuation of $2 trillion for Anthropic.
Context
The AI industry is moving from an era dominated by the training of increasingly large models toward greater emphasis on inference, in which those models are actually used. This shift makes the efficiency of computing increasingly important, as the cost of computing continues to rise alongside the rapid adoption of AI products such as Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini, and OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Anthropic's interest in Decart has implications beyond the startup itself. Establishing a meaningful presence in Israel could encourage other global AI companies to deepen their activity in the country, while potentially prompting existing players such as Google, Amazon, and Meta to expand their Israeli operations. There are precedents for this kind of effect, such as Intel's acquisition of Mobileye and Nvidia's acquisition of Mellanox.
