Amazon Explores a $7 Billion Acquisition of AI Startup Decart
The proposed deal would give Amazon world-model technology and software designed to move workloads between competing AI chips.
Amazon is in discussions to acquire artificial-intelligence startup Decart for approximately $7 billion, a deal that would combine a strategically useful software layer with the company's effort to reduce dependence on Nvidia's dominant accelerator ecosystem.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the talks, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters said it could not independently verify the report, and neither Amazon nor Decart commented. The parties could reach an agreement soon, but negotiations may fail or attract another bidder. The reported value should therefore be treated as a possible transaction price, not an agreed consideration.
Decart was founded in 2023 by Israeli engineers Dean Leitersdorf, Orian Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev. It has raised more than $400 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Radical Ventures. A $300 million round in May valued the company at nearly $4 billion, according to PitchBook data cited by the Journal. A $7 billion sale would represent a rapid increase from that private valuation.
The startup operates across two strategically connected areas. Its software is designed to help developers move workloads between different AI chips, reducing the technical friction of using alternatives to Nvidia hardware. Decart also develops world models, including Lucy and Oasis, that generate or simulate environments for video, robotics and autonomous-system training.
That combination is particularly relevant to Amazon Web Services. AWS has invested heavily in custom processors such as Trainium to lower the cost of training and running AI models. Yet custom silicon is valuable only if developers can use it without rebuilding their software stack. Decart's portability tools could make it easier for customers to shift workloads toward Amazon chips while retaining flexibility across other hardware.
The relationship is not new. AWS reportedly gave Decart early access to its Trainium3 chip after meeting the founders. Nvidia also participated in Decart's May funding round, creating a potentially delicate situation: an Amazon acquisition could bring technology backed by its primary AI-chip competitor into a vertically integrated cloud strategy.
Decart's world-model research adds a second motive. Systems that generate interactive environments can support robotics training, autonomous driving, gaming and synthetic data creation. These applications require substantial cloud compute and could create demand for both AWS infrastructure and Amazon's broader AI services.
There are clear risks. Decart has only a short operating history, and public information does not establish its revenue, customer concentration, compute commitments or profitability. The difference between a $4 billion May valuation and a possible $7 billion purchase price implies that Amazon is pricing strategic control and future growth rather than mature cash flow.
Another bidder could still emerge. Anthropic reportedly examined a transaction involving Decart before deciding not to proceed, while earlier coverage placed the potential value near $6 billion. Competing interest may support the valuation, but it also underlines how aggressively large AI companies are competing for scarce teams and infrastructure software.
Why it matters
The deal would show that the next phase of AI consolidation is not limited to model laboratories or semiconductor designers. Software that lets workloads move between chips is becoming strategic infrastructure because it determines whether cloud providers can turn custom silicon into usable customer products.
For Amazon, Decart could strengthen both sides of its AI offering: lower-level hardware portability and higher-level simulated environments. For Nvidia, a sale to AWS could place a portfolio company inside a competitor's stack. For cloud customers, the outcome could either increase hardware choice or bind useful portability technology more closely to one provider.
Until an agreement is signed, the financial terms, employee retention arrangements and product integration plan remain unknown. The strategic logic is visible, but the investment case still depends on evidence that Decart's technology and commercial adoption justify a price nearly twice its May valuation.