AI Firm Anthropic Abandons $6 Billion Deal for Israeli Startup Decart

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic, known for its Claude platform, has reportedly backed out of a $6 billion deal to acquire Israeli startup Decart. The decision followed a comprehensive financial and legal due diligence process, according to Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the matter. Decart specializes in developing models for large-scale, real-time interactive video creation and has also created its own GPU optimization technology.

Founded just three years ago, Decart has emerged as a prominent Israeli AI startup, raising approximately $450 million in investments. Notably, it secured $300 million in May of this year, reaching a valuation of $4 billion. Previously, Decart reportedly rejected an acquisition offer from NVIDIA, and there were unconfirmed reports linking Elon Musk to a potential purchase, which he denied.

Decart was registered in Tel Aviv on September 7, 2023. Its founders, Dean Leittersdorf and Moshe Shalev, met during reserve duty in Unit 8200. Dean Leittersdorf, from a prominent Israeli family, holds multiple degrees from the Technion and earned his doctorate in computer science at age 23. Shalev, who grew up in an ultra-Orthodox family, previously worked as a cyber operator.

Dean's younger brother, Orian Leittersdorf, joined as chief scientist a year after the company's founding. At 22, he became the youngest person in Technion history to receive a doctorate, surpassing his brother's previous record. Orian was still serving in the IDF when Decart was established, and military regulations generally prohibit soldiers from engaging in private paid work without special permission, though the specifics of his early involvement remain unclear.

Initially, Decart's founders emphasized their work on proprietary AI models and "world models." Dean Leittersdorf had expressed ambitions to build a trillion-dollar tech company in Israel capable of attracting a billion users, stating he was not interested in creating "just another company for sale."