Who is Decart? From AI startup to $7B acquisition target

Amazon.com Inc. is reportedly in discussions to acquire AI startup Decart.ai Inc. for a potential deal worth up to $7 billion, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Decart specializes in developing software that simplifies running AI models on various processors, a critical capability as companies vie for the computing resources needed for their AI applications.

The company recently secured $300 million at a $4 billion valuation, raising its total funding to over $400 million. Key investors include Radical Ventures, Nvidia Ventures, Adobe Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Benchmark. Founded in 2023 by Israeli software engineers Dean and Orian Leitersdorf, along with Moshe Shalev, Decart offers a platform called DOS that accelerates AI training and inference workloads by optimizing neural networks for specific processors.

This technology enables companies to adapt AI workloads to different processors as needs change or if chip availability becomes an issue. Decart also develops models such as Lucy and Oasis, designed for generating realistic three-dimensional environments for video games, robotic training, and other applications. While a deal with Amazon appears imminent, other potential bidders could emerge, as Anthropic was previously in talks to purchase Decart but ultimately withdrew from a reported $6 billion deal.

Decart's DOS platform may prove particularly valuable to Amazon Web Services, which provides its own custom AI processors in Trainium3, further bolstering AWS's AI capabilities.