Amazon in Talks to Buy AI Startup Decart for About $7 Billion, WSJ Reports

Amazon is in talks to acquire Decart, an artificial intelligence startup, in a deal that could be valued at around $7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, Oct. 11, citing people familiar with the matter.

Amazon and Decart did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report. No agreement has been announced.

The Journal's report said a deal could come soon if talks do not fall apart or another suitor does not emerge.

A big jump in value

Decart was valued at nearly $4 billion in May, the Journal said, citing PitchBook data. That was when it raised $300 million in a round led by Radical Ventures, with Nvidia joining as a new investor.

A $7 billion price would mark a big jump from that May valuation.

Other investors in the company include Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, Zeev Ventures and Toyota Ventures, according to Invezz.

What Decart makes

Decart's Lucy model can edit live video in real time, according to the company's website. Its Oasis model generates simulated environments used to train and test robotics and autonomous-driving systems.

The company also sells software that helps AI models run across different chips. Crypto Briefing describes the product as the Decart Optimization Stack, which supports Nvidia GPUs, Google TPUs and Amazon's own Trainium chips.

The Journal reported that Amazon Web Services gave Decart early access to Trainium a few months ago and that Amazon was highly impressed by the founders.

Crypto Briefing, which does not name a source for the figures, puts Decart's founding at Sept. 7, 2023, with more than 60 employees and over $450 million raised.

Anthropic looked first

Amazon is not the first big name to examine the company. Bloomberg News reported that Anthropic explored buying Decart in August for potentially $6 billion. It decided last month not to pursue a deal after conducting due diligence.

Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic. The two companies have not addressed Decart publicly.

Why chip-switching software matters

Companies building and running AI models are competing for limited chip supply. Software that lets a workload move between Nvidia, Google and Amazon silicon gives customers options when relying on a single supplier carries real risk.

That also raises a practical question for any buyer. Decart's tooling is valuable partly because it works across rival chips. Amazon has not said whether it would keep that cross-platform support, or lean the software toward Trainium, which Amazon has built to compete with Nvidia's hardware.

Invezz estimates Amazon is spending about $220 billion in capital expenditure this year. That figure is the outlet's own and is not confirmed by Amazon in the reporting.

Nvidia's position is also complicated. It is a Decart investor, and Lucy is described as backed by Nvidia. Nvidia has not said how it views a sale to a company building a rival chip.

What comes next

Everything about this deal rests on anonymous sourcing. The $7 billion figure is described as what the deal "could be" valued at, not a signed price.

The open questions are whether Amazon and Decart agree on terms, and whether another bidder appears before they do. Neither company has said anything publicly. The Journal's account suggests an announcement could come quickly if talks hold.