# Anthropic holds talks to buy real-time AI startup Decart for about $6B > Source: > Published: 2026-08-13 03:49:42+00:00 Dean Leitersdorf, [Moshe Shalev (@MosheSshalev)](https://x.com/MosheSshalev?ref=runtimewire) and Orian Leitersdorf, members of [Decart's founding team](https://decart.ai/about?ref=runtimewire), face a possible exit as Anthropic weighs buying the live AI lab for about $6 billion, [Bloomberg reported](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-13/anthropic-said-in-talks-to-buy-ai-startup-decart-for-6-billion?ref=runtimewire) on August 12, citing people familiar with the matter. Dean Leitersdorf is Decart's CEO and posts as [@DLeitersdorf](https://x.com/DLeitersdorf?ref=runtimewire). The negotiations have not produced a signed agreement, and the reported price remains a negotiating figure. The talks could still collapse. A completed transaction would amount to a rapid outcome for a company founded in 2023. Calcalist reported that a May 2026 financing valued Decart at approximately $4 billion. Dean Leitersdorf and Shalev met while serving in Israel's Unit 8200. [Public company coverage identifies Orian Leitersdorf as part of Decart's founding team](https://decart.ai/about?ref=runtimewire). Dean Leitersdorf completed bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in computer science at the Technion while also serving in the military. The Technion [recognized his doctoral work](https://www.cs.technion.ac.il/news/view-new.php?nwid=1373&ref=runtimewire) with the PODC 2023 outstanding dissertation award for research on fast distributed algorithms. Shalev spent roughly 13 years in Unit 8200 after [growing up in an ultra-Orthodox family in Bnei Brak and entering military service through the Bina Beyarok technology program for Haredi men](https://nextomoro.com/moshe-shalev/?ref=runtimewire). The founders built Decart around a practical constraint: interactive AI cannot wait for an offline video render. Games, live streams, robotics and responsive visual software require models that produce the next frame quickly enough to react to a person or machine. ### The stack Anthropic would be buying As of August 13, 2026, Decart [describes DOS as an inference-and-training stack for major hardware platforms, Lucy as a real-time video model, and Oasis 3 as a real-time, controllable multi-view simulation environment for physical AI](https://decart.ai/oasis?ref=runtimewire). Decart's [developer platform](https://platform.decart.ai/?ref=runtimewire) exposes its real-time models through an API and software development kit. If the acquisition closes, the product overlap could take Anthropic into a different technical arena. Claude has been built primarily around language, coding, agents and computer use. Decart works on systems that generate and react to visual environments continuously. Its technology could give Anthropic a route into world models, live media and physical AI without requiring it to build the entire stack internally. Decart says DOS can operate across Nvidia GPUs, Amazon Trainium and Google TPUs. [Radical Ventures, which led Decart's May financing, describes DOS as combining hardware-aware model design, kernel tooling, proprietary compilers and inference optimization](https://radical.vc/the-world-model-infrastructure-layer/?ref=runtimewire). The investor also says Lucy responds to user input in under 30 milliseconds and identifies Amazon as an early anchor API customer across multiple product lines. Those performance and customer assertions come from Decart's lead investor and have not been independently audited. Decart's own research documents show how early the category remains. The [original Oasis release generated output at 20 frames per second](https://oasis-model.github.io/?ref=runtimewire) and exhibited fuzzy distant imagery, temporal inconsistencies involving uncertain objects, domain-generalization problems, limited long-horizon memory and difficulty controlling inventories and objects. The technical bet is that Decart can keep latency and serving costs manageable as its models grow. ### A fast climb from seed round to acquisition target Decart emerged publicly in 2024 with a [$21 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital](https://decart.ai/about?ref=runtimewire) and the Oasis release. Benchmark led a [$32 million Series A](https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/19/decart-adds-another-32m-at-a-500m-valuation/?ref=runtimewire) later that year. A [$100 million round followed in August 2025 at a reported $3.1 billion valuation](https://fortune.com/2025/08/07/exclusive-decart-raises-100-million-at-a-3-1-billion-valuation-chasing-the-future-of-real-time-creative-ai/?ref=runtimewire). In May 2026, [Radical Ventures announced a $300 million Series B that it led](https://radical.vc/the-world-model-infrastructure-layer/?ref=runtimewire), bringing Decart's total capital raised above $450 million. [Decart lists](https://decart.ai/about?ref=runtimewire) Adobe, Alpha Partners, Atreides, Benchmark, eBay Ventures, Nvidia, Sequoia, Toyota Ventures, Valley Capital Partners, Valor Equity Partners and Zeev Ventures among its other investors. [Calcalist reported on May 18, 2026, that the round valued Decart at approximately $4 billion](https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sjt9ncukgl?ref=runtimewire). On that reported figure, a $6 billion purchase price would represent a premium of roughly 50% after about three months. If an agreement lands near $6 billion, part of that premium could reflect the value of Decart's team, [production infrastructure](/article/langflow-langgraph-langchain-agent-framework-security-flaws) and product portfolio before real-time visual models mature into a larger market. The final economics could also extend beyond the headline purchase price through employee retention and other deal terms. Leitersdorf has described a broader consumer ambition for the company. On August 7, 2025, [Fortune reported that he wanted Decart to build an application capable of reaching a billion people](https://fortune.com/2025/08/07/exclusive-decart-raises-100-million-at-a-3-1-billion-valuation-chasing-the-future-of-real-time-creative-ai/?ref=runtimewire). ### Anthropic has bought technical companies before Anthropic has acquired specialized technical companies including Bun, Vercept and Stainless. It [announced the Bun acquisition](https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-acquires-bun-as-claude-code-reaches-usd1b-milestone?ref=runtimewire) on December 3, 2025, saying the JavaScript runtime would accelerate Claude Code and improve its performance, stability and capabilities. Anthropic [announced its acquisition of Vercept](https://www.anthropic.com/news/acquires-vercept?ref=runtimewire) on February 25, 2026, to advance Claude's computer-use capabilities, and [announced the Stainless acquisition](https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-acquires-stainless?ref=runtimewire) on May 18, 2026, to improve Claude's connections to data and tools through software development kits and Model Context Protocol server tooling. A completed Decart purchase would extend that acquisition record into real-time visual generation and world models. The Bun, Vercept and Stainless deals offer no indication that the Decart negotiations will produce an agreement. Anthropic has the capital to attempt the deal. The company [raised $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation](https://www.anthropic.com/news/series-h?ref=runtimewire) on May 28, meaning a $6 billion purchase would consume less than one-tenth of that financing. Four days later, Anthropic [confidentially submitted a draft S-1](https://www.anthropic.com/news/confidential-draft-s1-sec?ref=runtimewire) for a proposed initial public offering. If Anthropic signs a Decart agreement before an IPO, prospective public investors could view it as evidence that the company is willing to use its balance sheet to add capabilities outside the Claude model family. A completed deal could also give Decart's founders access to substantially greater compute and distribution for their low-latency systems. Neither outcome establishes Anthropic's intent while negotiations remain open. The immediate fact remains narrower: Bloomberg reports that Anthropic and Decart are negotiating, based on unidentified people familiar with the matter. Until they sign, Decart remains independent. [Decart says](https://decart.ai/about?ref=runtimewire) it has raised more than $450 million and is developing DOS, Lucy and Oasis for low-latency AI and physical-AI world models.