A world model is software trained to simulate a physical or digital environment, letting an AI reason about what comes next rather than simply match patterns. Anthropic is in talks to pay roughly $6 billion for Decart AI, an Israeli startup that builds them, according to Bloomberg. The deal has not been finalized and could fall through.
What Decart builds and why it matters to Anthropic
Decart was founded in 2023 by brothers Dean and Orian Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev. Beyond world models, the company develops software designed to lower AI training costs by improving how efficiently chips process work. That capability has a direct appeal: Decart's tools could help Anthropic extract more performance from its existing hardware as demand for its Claude models grows.
If the acquisition closes, Decart's team would join Anthropic's inference and performance organization.
Decart's products and its eBay relationship
The company's Lucy model processes live video feeds and generates real-time footage showing people wearing clothing or accessories, addressing a longstanding challenge in fashion e-commerce. The Oasis model creates synthetic environments used in developing robotics and self-driving technology. eBay is both an investor in and a customer of Decart.
The valuation jump behind a $6 billion offer
In May, Decart raised $300 million in a round led by Radical Ventures. Nvidia, Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, and Adobe Ventures also participated. That round placed the company's value at nearly $4 billion, up from $3.1 billion in August 2025. A $6 billion acquisition price would represent a premium of roughly 50 percent over that valuation, according to The Next Web.
The deal would mark Anthropic's largest acquisition and its fifth of the year, also according to The Next Web.
Anthropic's broader push on compute
Chip capacity has become the binding constraint for AI companies at scale. Anthropic has arranged to use Amazon Web Services' custom Trainium chips on a long-term basis, announced plans to use Google's tensor processing unit chips, and reached a deal with SpaceX for computing power. According to the New York Times, it has also been in talks to lease capacity from Meta in an arrangement that could be worth as much as $10 billion over two years.
Last week, the company said it was hiring engineers to co-design custom chips and AI models aimed at making Claude run faster at lower cost. Anthropic submitted a confidential S-1 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission in early June.