Anthropic Abandons Proposed $6 Billion Acquisition of AI Startup Decart AI

Anthropic has decided not to acquire artificial intelligence startup Decart AI after exploring a deal valued at approximately $6 billion, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. The Claude developer conducted due diligence on Decart before withdrawing from the negotiations. Although an acquisition is no longer being pursued, the companies could explore other ways to work together, the report said. Representatives for Anthropic and Decart declined to comment. The proposed transaction would have represented a significant premium to Decart's most recently reported valuation. The startup was valued at nearly $4 billion after raising $300 million in May in a financing round led by Radical Ventures. Nvidia, Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners and Adobe Ventures participated alongside earlier investors Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Zeev Ventures. Founded in 2023 by Israeli engineers Dean Leitersdorf, Orian Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, Decart develops technology designed to improve the efficiency of AI computing infrastructure. Its optimization software helps developers extract more performance from chips used to train models and run inference workloads. Acquiring that technology could have helped Anthropic expand the capacity of its existing infrastructure while controlling the rapidly increasing cost of serving customers. Anthropic has been investing heavily in computing resources as it develops new Claude products and prepares for a potential initial public offering. The company rarely makes large acquisitions, making the proposed Decart purchase particularly notable. Anthropic has reportedly been preparing for an IPO that could rival or exceed the size of SpaceX's anticipated public offering. Decart also develops 'world models' designed to simulate physical environments. These systems could support applications ranging from autonomous vehicles and advertising to entertainment and online shopping. Its Lucy model, for example, can transform live video into high-resolution generated footage in real time. One application allows a person to virtually try on clothing or accessories, addressing a longstanding challenge for fashion e-commerce companies. EBay is both an investor in Decart and a customer. Decart CEO Dean Leitersdorf said in July that the company's technology was also being used by creators and advertisers across platforms including Twitch, TikTok and YouTube. The abandoned acquisition underscores the strategic importance of computing efficiency as leading AI companies confront the cost of training increasingly sophisticated models and operating them at scale. Key Takeaways