Published:
Anthropic is in talks to acquire Israeli AI startup Decart AI for approximately $6 billion, Bloomberg reported August 13, 2026, citing people familiar with the discussions. The deal would be Anthropic’s largest known acquisition to date. Decart builds software that reduces the cost of training and running AI models by making chips work more efficiently, and the talks have not concluded — the price and terms could still change.
Decart raised a funding round in May 2026 that valued the company at nearly $4 billion, up from $3.1 billion in August 2025. A $6 billion price tag represents roughly a 50% premium over that May valuation. Decart was founded in Israel and has since relocated its operations to Singapore. According to Fortune, the talks remain private and could still fall apart before a deal is signed.
What Decart Actually Builds
Decart’s core product compresses the memory and compute footprint of large AI models, cutting the hardware cost of both training and inference. The company is also known publicly for real-time video generation models, Lucy and Oasis, which can modify live video feeds and simulate interactive physical environments, according to PYMNTS. Decart’s chip-efficiency technology, not the video work, is the primary asset Anthropic is reportedly pursuing.
Why Anthropic Wants Chip Efficiency Now
Anthropic’s computing infrastructure needs to absorb surging demand for Claude, and a Bloomberg source described the potential deal as intended to help existing infrastructure handle that growth. Anthropic has already committed to two large 2026 compute deals — a reported $10 billion computing agreement and a $9 billion compute deal covered in our earlier reporting. Decart would be different: instead of buying more rented compute, Anthropic would own technology that makes the compute it already has run cheaper per token.
What It Means for Businesses Choosing AI Tools
Anthropic already prices Claude Opus 5 at roughly half the cost of its higher-end Fable 5 model, and OpenAI cut its GPT-5.6 Luna tier by 80% for ChatGPT users this year. A successful Decart integration gives Anthropic room to cut Claude prices further without shrinking margins, which matters directly to businesses comparing AI tools for business use on cost per token. Anthropic has not committed to specific price cuts — the acquisition is a strategic lever, not a pricing announcement.
The timing lines up with Anthropic’s preparation for a possible public-market debut this fall; Bloomberg reported the company is meeting potential investors alongside the Decart talks, following its earlier IPO filing.
Our Take: Anthropic isn’t just buying GPU efficiency — it’s buying pricing flexibility ahead of an IPO. If Decart’s technology cuts Claude inference cost by even 20–30%, Anthropic can compete more directly on price with OpenAI’s discounted Luna tier. Businesses evaluating AI platforms should watch whether Claude pricing moves materially by Q1 2027, rather than assume this deal changes anything today.
For Context: Anthropic’s 2026 Spending and Funding Pattern
The Decart talks follow a year of aggressive infrastructure and capital moves at Anthropic. The company closed a $6.5 billion funding round at a $965 billion valuation earlier in 2026, and has separately compared its enterprise positioning against competitors in coverage of Claude versus ChatGPT and Google for business subscribers. A completed Decart deal would add owned chip-efficiency technology to that spending pattern, distinct from the rented-compute deals Anthropic has signed with other partners this year.
