Amazon in talks to buy AI startup Decart for $7 billion

Amazon is in advanced discussions to acquire artificial intelligence startup Decart in a deal valued at approximately $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

If completed, the transaction would rank among the largest acquisitions in Amazon's history. It represents a significant consolidation step in the generative AI market, where cloud providers are pouring billions into infrastructure to challenge Nvidia's hold on computing chips.

Discussions remain fluid and could still fall apart or encounter a competing bidder, but people familiar with the talks indicated an agreement could be reached in the near term. Israeli business publication Calcalist had previously reported that Decart was in advanced discussions with a major technology firm.

Why Decart matters to Amazon

San Francisco-based Decart was founded in 2023 by Moshe Shalev and brothers Dean and Orian Leitersdorf. The company specialises in software that allows developers to toggle workloads between different AI chips without having to re-engineer their systems.

That flexibility has become a critical bottleneck for companies running large machine learning models. Most advanced AI applications currently rely on Nvidia's scarce and expensive graphics processing units. Decart's platform makes it easier to distribute computation across alternative hardware, helping customers avoid supplier lock-in and lower operational costs.

Amazon Web Services has been racing to convince cloud clients to adopt its in-house AI silicon, such as the Trainium3 processor. AWS granted Decart early access to its custom chips in 2025 after meeting the founders. Integrating Decart's software into AWS could smooth the transition for developers who want to migrate from Nvidia hardware to Amazon's own chips.

Valuation and expanding dealmaking

A $7 billion valuation would mark a steep escalation for Decart. PitchBook data shows the company was valued at nearly $4 billion in May and had raised more than $400 million in private funding from venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, and Radical Ventures.

The potential purchase follows several high-value transactions by Amazon as it expands key technical and media assets. The company completed a $6.5 billion acquisition of film studio MGM in 2022 and announced an $11 billion deal earlier in 2026 to buy satellite communications operator Globalstar.

Neither Amazon nor Decart has commented on the negotiations. Any final agreement is also expected to attract close interest from competition regulators, who have grown increasingly watchful of big tech firms buying up prominent AI startups.