Anthropic Nears Completion of $6 Billion Decart Acquisition as Annualized Revenue Climbs to $74 Billion
Anthropic PBC is in advanced negotiations to acquire Israeli artificial intelligence efficiency startup Decart AI for approximately $6 billion. If finalized, the transaction will mark the largest acquisition in Anthropic's history, representing a massive strategic bet on infrastructure optimization as the Claude maker prepares for a hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) in late 2026.
Strategic Shift: Buying Gross Margin, Not Features
The acquisition of Decart is not about adding consumer-facing features; it is a critical play to improve Anthropic's gross margins and address the severe compute constraints limiting Claude's commercial expansion. Decart's core technology focuses on:
- GPU Workload Optimization: Decart's software helps developers maximize chip performance, allowing AI training and inference to run significantly faster and more efficiently. This technology will be integrated into Anthropic's inference and performance organization to help its existing hardware infrastructure absorb surging demand.
- World Models and Video Generation: Decart also develops "world models" that simulate physical environments. Its flagship Lucy AI model can instantly modify live high-resolution video feeds, a capability used by e-commerce platforms like eBay to simulate clothing try-ons in real time.
According to industry analysts, the binding constraint on Anthropic's growth is no longer model quality or consumer demand, but rather the massive capital costs associated with serving Claude. Bringing Decart's optimization stack in-house represents a direct effort to lower inference costs per token.
Valuation Surge and SpaceX Denial
The proposed $6 billion price tag represents a substantial 50% premium over the $4 billion valuation Decart achieved just three months prior in May 2026, when it raised a $300 million funding round led by Radical Ventures, alongside Nvidia, Adobe Ventures, Atreides Management, and Valor Equity Partners. Founded in 2023 by Israeli engineers Dean Leitersdorf, Orian Leitersdorf, and Moshe Shalev, Decart has raised roughly $450 million to date.
While early reports from Israeli business outlet Calcalist suggested that Elon Musk's SpaceX was also circling Decart, Musk vehemently denied the rumors on his social media platform X, calling them "fake news." This has cleared the field for Anthropic to secure the deal. If completed, Decart's 100-person team is expected to form the foundation of a new Anthropic development center in Israel.