Anthropic cancels $6B acquisition of Israeli AI start-up Decart following due diligence

There is drama in the local and global AI market: Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has decided to pull out of a mega-deal to acquire Israeli start-up Decart AI. The deal, which was intended to reach a huge sum of around $6 billion and become the largest acquisition in Anthropic's history, was canceled following weeks of due diligence and advanced negotiations, according to a report in Bloomberg. According to sources familiar with the details, although a full acquisition has been taken off the table, the two companies may explore alternative avenues for joint work, such as a financial investment by Anthropic or becoming a customer of the Israeli firm. Representatives for both companies declined to comment on the reports. Decart, which was established just three years ago, has managed to raise about $450 million since its inception, including $300 million in its latest funding round in May at a valuation of around $4 billion. Its prominent investors include Sequoia, Benchmark, Radical, Zeev Ventures, Aleph, and even Nvidia itself. Decart is engaged in developing optimization technologies and artificial intelligence infrastructure, as well as independent models. The company's software helps chips operate more efficiently, which could reduce training costs for artificial intelligence models and help Anthropic cope with growing demand and the resulting computing capacity limitations. Among Decart's developments are the Lucy model, which enables real-time video editing, and the Oasis model, which generates simulation environments for training and testing robotics and autonomous driving systems. Last May, Decart raised $300 million in a funding round led by Radical Ventures with the participation of Nvidia, alongside additional investors including Adobe Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Benchmark. The funding was raised at a company valuation of nearly $4 billion. The company was founded by Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev. The cancellation of the deal also represents a disappointment for the local market, as the acquisition of Decart was expected to lead to the establishment of Anthropic's first development center in Israel. However, the American company still plans to expand its marketing and sales operations in the country in the near future.