Decart is an Israeli artificial intelligence company founded in 2023 that builds real-time "world models" — systems that generate and simulate interactive digital environments — alongside an inference optimization layer intended to run AI workloads across chips from multiple vendors. It raised $300 million in May 2026 at a valuation reported at approximately $4 billion, with Nvidia joining as a new investor. In August 2026, Reuters and Bloomberg reported that Anthropic was in early-stage talks to acquire the company.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Private company |
| Founded | 2023 |
| Headquarters | Israel |
| CEO | Dean Leitersdorf |
| CPO | Moshe Shalev |
| Products | DOS (inference optimization layer); Lucy (real-time interactive video world model); Oasis (world model for physical AI and robotics simulation) |
| Total raised | More than $450 million (as of May 2026) |
Snapshot
Valuation
| Date | Value | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-12 | ~$6B (reported potential deal value) | Bloomberg's figure for a possible Anthropic acquisition; talks described as early-stage, no deal announced | (Source: reuters.com) |
| 2026-05-18 | ~$4B | $300M round led by Radical Ventures; Nvidia new investor | (Source: calcalistech.com) |
| 2025-08 | $3.1B | Prior round; amount reported variously as $100M and $153M | (Source: wsj.com) |
Founding and people
Reporting on the company's founding differs. CTech describes Decart as founded in late 2023 by Dean Leitersdorf, who serves as chief executive, and Moshe Shalev, chief product officer, both veterans of the Israeli military's Unit 8200 (Source: calcalistech.com). The Wall Street Journal describes it as founded in 2023 by three Israeli engineers — brothers Dean and Orian Leitersdorf, and Moshe Shalev (Source: wsj.com).
Products
Decart's three product lines, as described by the company at the time of its May 2026 round, are DOS, an optimization layer for AI workloads; Lucy, a world model for real-time interactive video; and Oasis, a world model aimed at physical AI and robotics simulation. The company says it generates revenue through contracts with cloud providers, AI laboratories, and hyperscale customers (Source: calcalistech.com).
The Wall Street Journal frames the optimization layer as software that makes switching between AI chips easier, and reports that Nvidia's investment places it as a backer of a software layer that also runs on non-Nvidia silicon (Source: wsj.com). The same point is made in trade coverage noting that Nvidia is simultaneously a co-investor in World Labs and in Decart, both of which produce software layers portable across vendors (Source: actuia.com).
Funding and investors
The May 18, 2026 round of $300 million was led by Radical Ventures and included Nvidia as a new investor, alongside eBay Ventures, Adobe Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Atreides Management, and Valor Equity Partners, with existing investors Sequoia Capital, Zeev Ventures, and Benchmark participating. Individual investors reported in the round include Andrej Karpathy, former Walt Disney chief executive Michael Eisner, members of the Nintendo founding family, and gaming investor Moritz Baier-Lentz. The round brought total capital raised to more than $450 million (Source: calcalistech.com).
Sources differ on the round's label — the company described it as a Series B, while some trade coverage called it a Series D — and on the size of the prior August 2025 round, reported as $100 million by CTech and $153 million by the Wall Street Journal, both at a $3.1 billion valuation (Sources: calcalistech.com; wsj.com).
Amazon joined as a strategic customer in connection with the May 2026 round; Decart said the arrangement would let enterprise customers apply its technology to media, commerce, advertising, and physical AI, and that the Amazon Web Services collaboration and Nvidia's investment were intended to support infrastructure expansion (Source: calcalistech.com).
Reported acquisition talks
On August 12, 2026, Bloomberg reported that Anthropic was in talks to acquire Decart, putting a possible deal at about $6 billion; Reuters confirmed the same day, citing a source, that the talks were at an early stage and that Decart's team would join Anthropic's inference and performance organization if a transaction were completed. No agreement has been announced (Source: reuters.com).
The reported target — an inference-optimization team — matches the emphasis Anthropic has placed on serving cost and throughput, and would be a larger transaction than the robotics acquisition discussions with Physical Intelligence that became public in July 2026 and that Anthropic denied were in progress.
Relationships
- related: Anthropic — reported acquirer in early-stage August 2026 talks
- instance-of: World Models — Lucy and Oasis are real-time world models
- related: Nvidia & TSMC — AI Compute Infrastructure — investor and business partner; the optimization layer also runs on competing silicon
- related: Amazon — strategic customer; AWS collaboration announced May 2026
- depends-on: Inference Economics and Token Pricing — the optimization layer targets inference cost and latency
- related: AI Robotics — Oasis targets physical-AI and robotics simulation
- related: The AI Acquihire Pattern — the reported transaction structure routes a team into an acquirer's engineering organization
- related: Physical Intelligence — earlier reported Anthropic acquisition discussions
Sources
- (Source: calcalistech.com) — CTech, May 18, 2026: round size, valuation, investor list, founders, products
- (Source: wsj.com) — Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2026: founders, prior round, chip-portability framing
- (Source: reuters.com) — Reuters, August 2026: reported Anthropic acquisition talks
- (Source: actuia.com) — ActuIA, June 1, 2026: Nvidia's co-investment position across portable software layers