Image: The Next Web / thenextweb.com Anthropic Walks Away From $6 Billion Decart Deal Ahead of IPO
After completing due diligence on Decart AI's chip-efficiency technology, Anthropic has decided not to proceed with what would have been its largest acquisition by far.
Anthropic has ended talks to acquire Decart AI, the chip-efficiency startup it had been negotiating with since August, according to Bloomberg. The potential deal had valued Decart at roughly $6 billion, about 50% above the company’s May 2026 valuation of $4 billion. After completing due diligence, Anthropic decided not to proceed.
The two companies said they may still find other ways to work together, leaving open the possibility of a commercial licensing deal.
What Decart does
Decart is best known publicly for its world-model research, software that simulates physical environments for AI training. But Anthropic’s interest, per Bloomberg, was in a different part of the business: software designed to squeeze more performance out of AI chips during both training and inference, reducing compute costs without requiring new hardware.
That’s a genuinely valuable capability for a frontier lab that spends aggressively on compute. Anthropic reportedly committed around $80 billion to compute infrastructure this year.
Why the deal fell apart
No specific reason was given publicly. Two factors appear significant. First, $6 billion is a substantial premium on a company valued at $4 billion four months earlier. Deals priced that steeply tend to require high conviction that the technology can’t be replicated internally.
Second, Anthropic is widely expected to go public later this year, with some reports pointing to September or October 2026. Closing a $6 billion acquisition, likely in stock, immediately before an IPO would complicate the books and force shareholders to evaluate an untested integration alongside a new company. Walking away keeps the S-1 cleaner.
Scale of the deal
For context, Anthropic’s previous largest acquisition was roughly $400 million for a team of fewer than ten engineers. A $6 billion deal would have dwarfed everything the company has done before, and brought real integration risk alongside the chip-efficiency benefits.
The collapse doesn’t necessarily mean the technology goes elsewhere. Decart remains independent at its prior valuation, and a licensing arrangement, if it materializes, could give Anthropic access to the IP without a full acquisition.
Sources: Bloomberg | The Next Web