Amazon is negotiating the acquisition of AI company Decart for approximately 7 billion dollars. Among other things, the startup develops software that allows AI models to run more efficiently on different processors. Reuters reports this based on coverage by The Wall Street Journal.
According to sources cited by the U.S. business newspaper, a deal could be reached in the near future. However, the negotiations could still fall through, and another interested party could also emerge. Amazon and Decart have not confirmed the talks.
The potential acquisition price is significantly higher than the valuation Decart received earlier this year. In May, according to PitchBook data, the company was still valued at nearly $4 billion. During a funding round that month, Decart raised $300 million, with Nvidia also coming on board as an investor.
Optimization software of interest to AWS
Decart was founded in 2023 by Israeli developers Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev. Later, Leitersdorf’s brother Orian joined the founding team. In addition to generative AI models, the company develops software for optimizing AI workloads.
According to SiliconANGLE, the DOS platform is of particular interest to Amazon Web Services (AWS). It allows developers to optimize neural networks for specific processors. A process that previously could take months could be completed in just a few weeks with DOS. This makes it easier to migrate AI workloads to other chips when infrastructure availability or requirements change.
This technology could be valuable to AWS because the company is developing its own AI processors, including Trainium3. SiliconANGLE reports that Decart gained early access to these chips last year after the founders held discussions with AWS engineers. The potential acquisition would thus not only provide Amazon with additional AI models but also with technology to support the use of its own hardware.
Decart also developed Lucy, a model that allows for the real-time editing of live video footage, and Oasis, which generates virtual environments. This technology can be used, among other things, for video games and for training and testing robots and autonomous driving systems.
Anthropic backed out earlier
Amazon is not the first major AI player to show interest in Decart. Anthropic also explored an acquisition earlier this year. In August, there was talk of a potential deal worth approximately $6 billion.
However, according to Bloomberg News, Anthropic decided last month to abandon the acquisition after conducting a due diligence review. It is unclear why the negotiations were terminated.
It remains to be seen whether Amazon will actually go through with the acquisition. It is also unclear whether the company is primarily interested in the optimization software, the generative AI models, or a combination of the two.