Israeli Startup Decart AI Nears Billion-Dollar Exit with Anthropic Deal

Israeli startup Decart AI, founded by Din Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, is close to finalizing a major acquisition by American AI company Anthropic, known for its AI model Claude. The deal is expected to bring one of the world’s leading AI model developers to Israel and create at least two new billionaires, with the founders holding a combined 64% stake valued at around $4 billion on paper. Each of the three founders, including Din’s brother Orian Leitersdorf who joined as chief scientist last year, is expected to receive equity worth between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.

While the offer from Anthropic is lower than a previous $7-8 billion bid from Nvidia, it includes mostly Anthropic shares rather than cash. Anthropic plans a historic IPO valued at $2 trillion with projected annual revenues of $100-120 billion by year-end. This share-based deal could yield higher returns than cash but involves tax complexities, including capital gains and potential future tax adjustments depending on Anthropic’s stock performance.

Decart, founded in late 2023 by former Israeli intelligence unit 8200 veterans, specializes in AI infrastructure and "world models" that simulate dynamic environments in real time. It employs about 100 people and has raised over $450 million. Most investors are large American funds, with only a small Israeli stake held by Michael Eisenberg’s Aleph fund.

If completed, Anthropic’s acquisition will mark its first direct R&D presence in Israel, complementing its existing sales operations based in Ireland. Decart will continue developing technologies to optimize Anthropic’s AI models across various chip platforms, including Nvidia GPUs, Google TPUs, and Amazon Inferentia processors. Anthropic is also expanding its development center in London, aiming to employ 200 people.

This deal follows a trend of major AI companies scaling up globally ahead of anticipated IPOs, with competitors like OpenAI also expanding their sales teams internationally but not establishing operations in Israel.