Seven billion dollars for a startup founded just three years ago, with about 100 employees and no disclosed revenue. Amazon is reportedly discussing a purchase of Decart for around $7 billion, according to an October 11 Wall Street Journal report, but neither company has confirmed the talks. If you’re wondering what could justify that price, Decart builds live AI video models, interactive simulations and software that makes AI easier to run across different chips.
| Key fact | What you need to know |
|---|---|
| Buyer | Amazon is reportedly negotiating |
| Target | Decart, founded in 2023, headquartered in San Francisco with a development center in Tel Aviv |
| Reported price | Around $7 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal |
| Last valuation | Nearly $4 billion in May 2026 |
| Total funding | Approximately $450 million |
| Main products | DOS, Lucy and Oasis |
| Current status | Unconfirmed talks. Amazon declined Reuters’ request for comment, while Decart did not respond |
| Previous suitors | Nvidia and Anthropic, which reportedly considered a roughly $6 billion purchase |
The Amazon Decart story connects two things you might usually read about separately. One is AI video that changes while you watch it, and the other is the software needed to make that AI run on Amazon’s chips.
What the Amazon Decart talks involve
Amazon is reportedly negotiating an acquisition, with the Wall Street Journal attributing its information to people familiar with the discussions. Before you treat the reported price as a completed purchase, there are a few details to separate.
According to the report, an agreement could arrive soon. However, negotiations could break down, or another buyer could enter the bidding.
Reuters reported that Amazon declined to comment outside business hours and Decart did not answer its inquiry. Neither company has publicly confirmed the discussions, so you’re still looking at a reported transaction.
Then there’s the price. At roughly $7 billion, the reported offer would sit about 75% above Decart’s nearly $4 billion valuation in May, less than five months earlier.
That is a large jump in a short period. To understand why Amazon might consider paying it, you need to look beyond Decart’s video demonstrations and into its chip software.
What Decart does
Decart works on both the AI experiences you can see and the software that helps run them. Its three main products give you a useful way to understand those two sides.
DOS, the software that moves AI between chips
DOS stands for Decart Optimization Stack. It lets AI workloads run on Nvidia GPUs, Google TPUs and AWS Trainium without requiring developers to rebuild them for each platform.
You see, the model is only part of the job. The software supporting it matters too, especially when you want to change the hardware underneath.
Decart licenses this technology to cloud providers and AI labs. SiliconANGLE, as cited by Tech Funding News, says it can reduce chip-specific tuning work from months to roughly two weeks.
Lucy, live video editing in real time
Lucy changes video as it happens, rather than waiting for you to finish recording. Decart says Lucy 2.5 generates live video at 30 frames per second.
For you as an online shopper, one use is seeing how clothing looks on you through virtual try-on. Other uses include live advertising, social content and gaming.
Streamers already use Decart technology on Amazon-owned Twitch. eBay is also a customer, giving you examples of its technology being used beyond a product demonstration.
Oasis, worlds for robots and games
Oasis began with a generated game resembling Minecraft. Released in 2024, it attracted one million users within three days.
Oasis 3 now targets applications involving robotics, autonomous vehicles, manufacturing and drones. Its simulated environments are intended to support training and testing, including work on robots and autonomous-driving systems.
Those products come with performance claims that deserve careful reading. Keep these distinctions in mind when you compare the headline numbers.
- Efficiency. Decart advertises a hundredfold improvement, but its homepage provides no supporting data for that figure.
- Response time. Its work with Comcast targets generative AI experiences below 35 milliseconds on Nvidia GPUs at the network edge. You should read that as a stated target.
- Running costs. Decart says its technology can bring model operating costs below $0.25 an hour. That remains a company claim.
Who founded Decart and how much it has raised
Dean Leitersdorf leads Decart as CEO, Orian Leitersdorf serves as CTO, and Moshe Shalev is its chief product officer. Dean and Shalev met in Israel’s Unit 8200, and the company has about 100 employees. Here’s how its funding grew.
| Funding stage | Amount raised | Valuation | Named investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | $21 million | Not stated | Sequoia led, with Oren Zeev participating |
| Following round | $25 million | Approximately $500 million | Benchmark led |
| August 2025 | $100 million | $3.1 billion | Investors across its funding history include Sequoia, Benchmark and Zeev Ventures |
| May 2026 | $300 million | Approximately $4 billion | Radical Ventures led. Nvidia joined, alongside investors including Andrej Karpathy, Michael Eisner and the Yamauchi family |
Altogether, Decart has raised approximately $450 million. The May round supplied most of that funding and added Nvidia as a new investor.
Revenue is harder for you to assess because Decart has not published an official figure. Decart claims it was profitable soon after starting, while CTech put its estimated revenue at several tens of millions, with chipmaker work accounting for most of that amount.
That estimate gives you some context, but it does not establish Decart’s actual revenue. Keep the funding totals, company statements and revenue estimate separate when judging the reported purchase price.
Why Amazon wants Decart
Amazon’s possible reasons extend from its custom chips to shopping and Twitch. If you want to understand the reported talks, these are the connections that matter.
- Bring developers onto Trainium. Nvidia’s CUDA software helps keep developers attached to its hardware. DOS could make it easier for you to move a model built for Nvidia onto Amazon’s chips with fewer changes.
- Build on work already demonstrated. Decart had moved its models to Trainium before these reported talks. At AWS reInvent in December 2025, its technology transformed a live video of AWS executive Peter DeSantis into a cartoon version of Werner Vogels, running on Trainium3.
- Pursue faster video at lower cost. Amazon says Decart achieved four times faster real-time video inference on Trainium at half the cost of GPUs. You should treat those figures as Amazon’s performance claims.
- Add engineering talent and improve chip use. Buying Decart would bring its engineers into Amazon. Its optimization software could also help Amazon obtain more performance from existing hardware.
- Connect video with existing businesses. Decart technology already reaches Twitch streamers, while Lucy supports virtual try-on. Those uses give you a connection to Amazon’s streaming and shopping businesses.
- Deepen an existing commercial relationship. Amazon became a strategic customer in May 2026 through a commercial agreement and a joint sales plan. The reported acquisition discussions therefore follow an established relationship between the companies.
Where Anthropic fits in
Anthropic connects to this story through both Amazon’s investments and its own reported attempt to buy Decart. To make sense of that relationship, you need to separate an investment stake from ownership.
Amazon does not own Anthropic outright. GeekWire puts Amazon’s investment at about $18 billion, with as much as another $15 billion dependent on milestones, while Anthropic uses Trainium for training and running Claude.
Then there’s the acquisition that did not happen. Anthropic reportedly considered buying Decart for roughly $6 billion in August, before deciding against proceeding in September after due diligence.
Why walk away? No official reason was given, although Globes sources reportedly linked the outcome to Decart’s founders resisting a request to move much of the Tel Aviv team to San Francisco.
That explanation remains reported rather than confirmed. The companies could still work together, so you should distinguish the abandoned purchase from any future commercial relationship.
The bidding war timeline
Amazon entered a story that already involved funding rounds, chip demonstrations and reported interest from other buyers. Here’s the sequence you need to follow.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| December 2, 2025 | Decart demonstrated live video technology on Trainium3 at AWS reInvent |
| May 2026 | A $300 million funding round valued Decart near $4 billion. Amazon also became a strategic customer |
| August 10, 2026 | Decart was reportedly in advanced sale discussions around $6 billion to $7 billion. Earlier Nvidia negotiations had collapsed, while SpaceX was reportedly a possible bidder |
| August 2026 | Anthropic reportedly became the preferred buyer, with a price around $6 billion |
| September 8, 2026 | Reports said Anthropic had withdrawn after due diligence |
| October 11, 2026 | The Wall Street Journal reported Amazon’s talks at approximately $7 billion |
There’s an interesting detail in the earlier bidding. According to Globes, Nvidia had offered more, but Decart’s founders preferred Anthropic’s offer involving shares ahead of its planned IPO.
You can see why the latest report deserves careful reading. A preferred bidder and a large proposed price have already failed to produce a completed sale.
How the Amazon Decart price compares with other big deals
Seven billion dollars would put Decart among Amazon’s larger purchases, although several past transactions cost more. To judge the scale, you also need to distinguish acquisitions from investments and licensing arrangements.
| Transaction | Price or valuation | What you’re comparing |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon and Decart | Reportedly about $7 billion | Acquisition discussions |
| Amazon and Whole Foods | $13.7 billion | Acquisition in 2017 |
| Amazon and MGM | $8.45 billion | Acquisition in 2022 |
| Amazon and Globalstar | $11.57 billion | Purchase agreed in April 2026 |
| Amazon and Annapurna Labs | Reportedly about $350 million | Acquisition in 2015 |
| Nvidia and Groq | Reportedly around $20 billion | Non-exclusive licensing agreement and recruitment of the founder and team |
| Meta and Scale AI | Scale valued at $29 billion | Investment, with founder Alexandr Wang joining Meta |
At the reported price, Decart would be Amazon’s largest AI acquisition, rather than its largest acquisition overall. Annapurna offers another useful reference because that much smaller purchase helped establish Amazon’s chip business.
The Nvidia-Groq figure needs particular care. Groq remained independent under that arrangement, so you cannot treat its reported value as the price of an ordinary company takeover.
What could still go wrong
The reported Amazon talks have not produced a confirmed agreement, and previous bidders have already stepped back. These are the uncertainties you should keep in mind.
- Negotiations could fail. The Wall Street Journal report allows for discussions breaking down or another bidder appearing. Earlier Nvidia and Anthropic negotiations show that a reported sale can remain unfinished.
- DOS could face questions about chip support. Decart currently supports Nvidia, Google and Amazon hardware. Whether that chip-neutral role would continue under Amazon remains an open question.
- Team location could matter. Decart’s founders reportedly resisted Anthropic’s request to relocate much of the Tel Aviv team. You should watch for any confirmed staffing or location terms in an Amazon agreement.
- Revenue remains undisclosed. CTech estimated annual revenue in the tens of millions, while also describing the business as much smaller than its valuation. That leaves you without an official revenue figure against which to assess the reported price.
- Performance claims need context. Decart’s efficiency figures are self-reported, and Amazon supplied the Trainium speed and cost comparison. Those attributions matter when you assess what the technology can deliver.
What to watch next
Your next useful update will be one that answers the unresolved questions about ownership, customers or chip performance. Keep these checks in mind as new information arrives.
- Company confirmation. Look for an announcement from Amazon or Decart confirming, denying or updating the reported negotiations. Until then, describe the transaction as talks.
- Final price and structure. Check whether the reported $7 billion figure survives into an agreement. Any disclosed cash, share or hiring terms would help you understand what Amazon is actually buying.
- Support for other chips. Watch whether Decart continues serving customers using Nvidia GPUs and Google TPUs. That would answer the open question about DOS remaining chip-neutral.
- Trainium results. Look for evidence of developer adoption and further performance information. Keep company benchmarks separate from independently established results.
FAQs
Decart makes chip optimization software, live AI video models and interactive simulations. You can understand its main products as DOS for running AI across different chips, Lucy for changing live video, and Oasis for generated environments used in games and machine training.
Amazon is reportedly discussing a purchase near $7 billion, but no completed agreement has been confirmed. The Wall Street Journal reported the negotiations on October 11, and you should continue treating the price as reported.
No, Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic rather than its outright owner. GeekWire reports roughly $18 billion invested, and Anthropic uses Amazon’s Trainium chips to train and run Claude.
No official explanation was provided for Anthropic’s reported withdrawal after due diligence. Globes sources reportedly connected it to the founders opposing a substantial team relocation from Tel Aviv to San Francisco, but you should treat that explanation as unconfirmed.
Dean Leitersdorf, Orian Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev founded Decart in 2023. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with a development center in Tel Aviv, so you’re looking at a company operating across both locations.
Decart could help developers transfer AI workloads to Trainium with fewer changes to their existing software. Its models already run on Amazon’s chips, and Amazon claims fourfold faster real-time video inference at half the GPU cost.
No, the reported $7 billion price would fall below Amazon’s Whole Foods, MGM and agreed Globalstar transactions. You would instead be looking at one of Amazon’s larger acquisitions and its biggest AI purchase if the deal proceeds at that price.
