Anthropic walked away from moving forward with the acquisition of artificial intelligence startup Decart AI for around US$ 6 billion after conducting due diligence on the company, Bloomberg reported this Tuesday (8), citing people familiar with the negotiations. The specific reason for the withdrawal was not disclosed.
The talks had been revealed in August and could have resulted in Anthropic's largest known acquisition. The deal was never finalized and, from the start, there was a possibility the negotiations would fall through. Representatives of both companies did not comment on the decision.
The withdrawal comes at a time of strong expansion in Anthropic's spending on computing infrastructure and as the company prepares for a much-anticipated initial public offering on Wall Street. The company has been seeking to expand capacity to meet growing demand for its Claude models.
Reason for withdrawal not disclosed
Bloomberg reported that Anthropic examined Decart during the due diligence process before abandoning the acquisition, but did not point to what led the company to change its decision. There is no confirmation that the price, the technology, or any issue identified during the review prompted the withdrawal.
Decart drew Anthropic's interest mainly for its infrastructure optimization technology. The startup develops the Decart Optimization Stack (DOS), a system designed to increase the efficiency of chips used in training and running AI models, reducing the amount of computing capacity needed for certain workloads.
In May, the company announced a US$ 300 millionround, led by Radical Ventures, bringing Decart's total funding to more than US$ 450 million. Nvidia, Adobe Ventures, Benchmark, Sequoia Capital, and other investors are among its backers.
Decart had been valued at nearly US$ 4 billion in that round, according to information published at the time. An acquisition for US$ 6 billion would place the transaction value significantly above that recent valuation.
Despite the end of the acquisition talks, a collaboration between the companies is still not ruled out. One of the people heard by Bloomberg said Anthropic and Decart may explore other forms of partnership.
