Anthropic Nears $7 Billion Deal to Acquire Israeli AI Startup Decart

Anthropic, a leading artificial intelligence company founded by former OpenAI members, is close to finalizing an acquisition of the Israeli startup Decart. The deal, currently in an advanced stage of draft exchanges, values Decart at approximately $7 billion. Most of the payment will be made in Anthropic shares, which will be transferred to Decart's shareholders, including founders Dr. Dean Littersdorf and Moshe Shalev, and major investor Sequoia Capital. The acquisition is expected to close within the next month, ahead of Anthropic's planned Nasdaq IPO in September or October.

Decart, established in 2023 and employing around 100 people, has raised $450 million to date. The startup had been negotiating with Nvidia, which offered a higher valuation, but the emergence of Anthropic's bid halted those talks. Decart's technology enhances the efficiency of AI chips from various manufacturers, including GPUs, enabling AI models to run up to eight times faster. This innovation significantly reduces computational costs, a critical factor as AI usage and inference demands grow globally.

The acquisition will mark Anthropic's largest purchase to date and position Decart as the foundation for a new development center in Israel, signaling the country's rising prominence in the AI sector. Despite the deal's progress, other major tech players such as Google and SpaceX have shown interest following public disclosure of the negotiations. Decart's founders view the deal as a strategic exit, given the company's current lack of a sustainable business model despite its technological promise.

Anthropic recently reported a 14-fold revenue increase in Q2 to $11.5 billion and achieved positive EBITDA for the first time. The company's growth and the acquisition of Decart highlight Israel's emerging role in the global AI landscape, potentially attracting further investment and tech activity to the region. The deal is seen as a significant milestone for Israeli high-tech, comparable in impact to previous major acquisitions like Mobileye by Intel and Mellanox by Nvidia.