Anthropic Reportedly Walks Away from $6B Decart Acquisition
Bloomberg, citing sources, reports that Anthropic walked away from roughly $6B acquisition talks with Israeli AI startup Decart after completing due diligence; the deal would reportedly have been paid in pre-IPO stock and the reason for walking away was not disclosed. Decart is weeks from IPO, making this a rare large-scale M&A attempt by Anthropic worth following.
Confirmed
- Bloomberg reported Anthropic exited the $6B talks after due diligence, with no disclosed reason.
- Decart has about 100 employees and was valued near $4B months ago, implying a large premium.
- Decart builds its own DOS inference engine claiming 8x faster token speeds and works on AI video generation; per @markk, Anthropic was interested in its inference optimization stack.
- NVIDIA is already a Decart investor.
Unconfirmed
- Multiple posters (e.g. @ns123abc) stress the details are leaks and Bloomberg's report is authoritative.
- NVIDIA was previously rumored to have bid about $8B for Decart; Decart's stance on that offer is unclear.
- Per an unverified account relayed by @ashajadeja, Decart's three founders (all in their 20s, holding 64% combined) rejected the $6B offer because it required relocating to the US; this conflicts with Bloomberg's narrative of Anthropic walking away, and which version holds remains unresolved.
Why it matters
- A rare exposed large acquisition attempt by Anthropic, signaling interest in media generation and inference optimization.
- Walking away after due diligence without a stated reason may reflect AI giants' caution on valuation and integration; if the relocation-rejection claim is true, it also highlights geographic factors in cross-border M&A involving Israeli startups. Decart's imminent IPO makes its next moves worth watching.
2026-09-08 ~ 2026-09-09 · 8 related posts
Primary sources
- Anthropic Reportedly Abandons ~$6B Acquisition of Israeli AI Startup Decart Weeks Before Its IPO — ns123abc · 2026-09-08
- [source] Anthropic walked away from ~$6B Decart acquisition after due diligence, sources say — matt_slotnick · 2026-09-08
- Decart founders reportedly turned down a $6B Anthropic acquisition to stay in Israel — ashajadeja · 2026-09-09
5 near-duplicate retellings: ns123abc · ns123abc · ns123abc · mark_k · Kr00ney