Anthropic nears $7 billion Decart deal

Anthropic is expected to sign a deal to acquire Israeli AI company Decart at an estimated valuation of $7 billion, making it the largest acquisition in Anthropic’s history. The company plans to move a significant part of its operations to Israel and place Decart’s teams at the center of its push toward artificial general intelligence, or AGI.

Decart was founded at the end of 2023 by Dr. Dean Leitersdorf, 28, and Moshe Shalev, 39, who met in Unit 8200, with Dean’s younger brother, Dr. Orian Leitersdorf, later joining the founders. The founders are estimated to hold more than 60% of the company, and if the deal closes at $7 billion, each founder’s stake would be worth about $1.5 billion, largely through Anthropic shares.

Decart drew interest because its technology accelerates AI processing, helping lower costs and expand AI tools for customers. It built and trained its own models with its own data, then used improvements in model quality to optimize training and inference. The company also showcased a continuous AI video model that prompted Elon Musk to respond “wow.”

The deal could make Anthropic a major anchor for Israel’s AI ecosystem. Decart had attracted interest from companies including Nvidia, Google, SpaceX, Amazon and Nebius, while Sequoia Capital, its largest investor, has played a central role in funding and business strategy.