SpaceX Nears $6 Billion Acquisition of Israeli AI Startup Decart
Israeli AI startup Decart is on the verge of being sold to a major international player for approximately $6-7 billion, with the deal expected to close as soon as next week. Initial negotiations were held with Nvidia, but a larger bidder entered the scene, reportedly SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace and technology company. Amazon and Israeli-rooted cloud company Nebius are also said to be interested. The entire process is taking place in the U.S., and Decart has not commented.
If completed, this acquisition would mark a significant milestone for Israeli tech, as SpaceX plans to establish its first research and development center in Tel Aviv based on Decart's technology. Musk has followed Decart closely since 2024, after the company launched OASIS, a real-time video generation game that quickly gained a million users and impressed Musk, who tweeted "Wow." Musk and Decart co-founder Din Leitersdorf have maintained ongoing contact since then.
Decart, founded in 2023 by Din Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, has raised around $450 million to date and employs about 100 people. The company develops a large language model capable of real-time video generation at significantly lower costs than competitors, attracting chip manufacturers and cloud providers. Decart's technology initially ran on Nvidia GPUs but recently deepened collaboration with Amazon.
Leitersdorf, a computer science prodigy with a PhD at 23, and Shalev, a former IDF 8200 intelligence unit officer, aimed to position Decart as a major AI player globally and to elevate Israel's status in AI. The acquisition by SpaceX aligns with these ambitions, potentially placing Israel among the top AI nations. SpaceX recently raised $75 billion to expand its AI infrastructure and acquired AI startup Crusor for $60 billion, indicating a broader AI strategy that Decart could complement.
Decart's rapid growth and high-profile investors, including Sequoia Capital and Benchmark, underscore its potential. Despite recent funding rounds valuing the company at around $4 billion, the new offer represents a significant premium. The deal reflects the increasing interest of global tech giants in Israeli AI innovation and could reshape the local tech landscape.
