Amazon Plans to Acquire AI Startup Decart for $7 Billion After Anthropic Considered Bid

TradingKey - Amazon (AMZN) is seeking to further expand its footprint in the AI infrastructure sector through the acquisition of AI startup Decart.

According to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter, the two sides are in talks regarding an acquisition that could value the startup at up to $7 billion. If negotiations proceed smoothly and no other bidders join, a deal could be reached in a relatively short timeframe. However, neither party has officially announced an agreement at this point.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Decart's core technologies include software tools that help developers switch between different AI chips. As AI companies scramble to secure computing resources, chip supply and computing costs have become crucial factors affecting model development and deployment. Software capable of adapting to different chips helps developers reduce reliance on a single hardware platform while offering companies more options to flexibly manage computing resources.

The potential acquisition is closely aligned with Amazon's strategy of developing its own AI chips. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is advancing its proprietary Trainium chip series to reduce AI computing costs and compete in the GPU market dominated by Nvidia (NVDA). AWS reportedly provided Decart with early access to its Trainium3 chips as early as 2025. Their prior technical collaboration set the stage for Amazon to further evaluate Decart's software capabilities.

Beyond chip-adaptation technology, Decart is also developing AI "world models" named Lucy and Oasis to generate and simulate three-dimensional real-world environments. This technology enables AI systems to generate scenes and simulate physical processes in virtual environments, offering new development directions for gaming, content generation, and other applications. By acquiring Decart, Amazon stands to gain both chip-software adaptation capabilities and related AI model technologies, further refining its own AI technology ecosystem.

Founded in 2023, Decart was co-founded by three Israeli engineers: Dean Leitersdorf, Orian Leitersdorf, and Moshe Shalev. According to PitchBook data, the company has previously raised more than $400 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, and Radical Ventures. In May of this year, Decart was valued at nearly $4 billion. If the transaction is ultimately completed at a valuation of around $7 billion, its value would mark a significant increase from its previous funding round.

Amazon is not the only major AI company expressing interest in acquiring Decart.

According to previous reports, Anthropic had held acquisition talks with Decart, with a potential deal value of around $6 billion, and conducted due diligence before abandoning the plan in September of this year. Now, Amazon's pursuit of negotiations underscores the growing trend of AI companies competing for critical technology and infrastructure.

For Amazon, developing in-house chips requires not only hardware design capabilities but also matching software tools to support developers in deploying models onto its computing platform. If Decart's software can make it easier for customers to use Trainium chips, Amazon would have the opportunity to attract more AI developers and enterprise clients to AWS compute services, thereby boosting the competitiveness of its cloud computing business.

Currently, the deal remains in the negotiation stage, and the final valuation as well as whether a transaction will be completed remain uncertain. But as demand for AI compute continues to grow, competition among chipmakers is extending from hardware performance to software compatibility, developer tools, and the broader tech ecosystem. Should Amazon successfully acquire Decart, it will further step up investment in this area and secure greater market opportunities for its proprietary AI chips.