Amazon is reportedly in talks to purchase AI startup Decart in a deal worth roughly $7 billion, a price tag that would make it one of Amazon's biggest acquisitions in years and one of the largest exits in Israeli tech history. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Amazon was putting together the deal, which centers on software that helps developers move AI models between different computer chips.
According to The Seattle Times, Decart sells software that lets developers switch more easily between AI chips, alongside tools for real-time video editing and AI that generates real-world 3-D environments. The company was founded in 2023 by brothers Dean and Orian Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, and later moved its headquarters to San Francisco. Notably, Amazon isn't the first major AI player to come calling — Anthropic engaged in advanced negotiations to acquire Decart for approximately $6 billion in September 2026, according to Quartz, but walked away after due diligence.
A Four-Billion-Dollar Startup Barely a Year Old
The numbers behind Decart's rise are striking. The startup raised $300 million in a Series B round in May 2026 led by Radical Ventures, with participation from Nvidia, Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, and Zeev Ventures, a round that valued the company at nearly $4 billion and pushed its total funding past $400 million, per Benzinga. A $7 billion sale price just months later would represent a near-doubling of that valuation.
Decart's investor roster extends well beyond typical venture funds. Per Seeking Alpha, backers include former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, the Yamauchi family that founded Nintendo, and e-commerce firm eBay, which is also a Decart customer.
Solving Amazon's Chip Problem
At the technical core of the deal is what's known internally as the Decart Optimization Stack, software that helps sync models with different processors. That matters as Amazon competes with Nvidia in AI chips.
Amazon Web Services gave Decart early access to its Trainium3 chip in 2025, and the Journal reported that AWS was impressed by the founders. The payoff shows up in benchmarks: tech research group The Futurum Group found Decart's optimization software boosted real-time generative video speeds from 26 frames per second on standard GPUs to roughly 101 frames per second running on Trainium chips, according to the same Benzinga report.
Already Embedded Across Amazon's Businesses
Decart isn't a stranger to Amazon's ecosystem. Its live video and world-simulation models are already deployed across Amazon MGM Studios productions, the Twitch live-streaming platform, and Amazon's online retail operations, according to Seeking Alpha. That existing footprint suggests the acquisition would formalize a relationship that's already deeply operational rather than speculative.
Decart released its Oasis 3 model in mid-2026 as an interactive world model for physical AI, per Decart's own AI lab. The original Oasis drew attention in 2024 for a Minecraft-like game generated on the fly.
Founders With Roots in Israeli Military Intelligence
Decart's founding team has drawn particular attention in Israeli media. Co-founders Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev are former members of Unit 8200, the Israeli Defense Forces' elite cyber intelligence and technical unit, according to the Times of Israel. Decart was founded in late 2023.
Where This Fits in Amazon's Bigger AI Bet
If finalized at $7 billion, the acquisition would be Amazon's fourth-largest corporate acquisition overall, trailing only its $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods in 2017, its approximately $11.6 billion Globalstar acquisition in 2026, and its $8.5 billion deal for MGM Studios in 2021, per Business Insider.
The talks arrive as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy defends a $200 billion multi-year AI capital expenditure plan, a push Hoodline detailed in its report on Jassy's AI spending defense. That spending comes amid Amazon's work with Anthropic, according to AP News — the same AI lab that walked away from its own Decart offer about a month before Amazon's reported talks. Per the Seattle Times, the story will be updated as talks progress.
