Amazon is reportedly locked in advanced discussions to acquire artificial intelligence startup Decart in a high-stakes transaction valued at approximately $7 billion. The potential acquisition marks another major move by the e-commerce and cloud computing giant to cement its standing in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape, particularly as competition for specialized hardware, advanced software infrastructure, and foundational research reaches unprecedented levels.
According to a report published Sunday, October 11, by The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the ongoing negotiations, a definitive agreement could materialize relatively soon, provided that the current discussions do not collapse and no rival technology conglomerate steps forward with a competing bid. PYMNTS reached out to Amazon seeking official comment on the reported acquisition talks, but the company had not provided a response at the time of publication.
Founded in 2023, Decart has quickly established a reputation for building innovative software and artificial intelligence models designed to tackle some of the industry’s most pressing infrastructure bottlenecks. The startup’s core technology includes software that significantly simplifies the process for software developers and engineers looking to move seamlessly between different AI chips. This capability has grown exponentially in value as organizations across every sector scramble to secure additional computing power to train and deploy increasingly sophisticated machine learning models amid an industry-wide hardware shortage.
Beyond its hardware-agnostic software solutions, Decart has been actively developing advanced world models known as Lucy and Oasis. These proprietary models are engineered to generate and simulate complex, real-world three-dimensional environments, positioning the startup at the cutting edge of simulation technology and spatial intelligence.
The potential acquisition strategy comes as Amazon continues to heavily invest in its proprietary hardware ecosystem to challenge established market leaders. The Wall Street Journal noted that Amazon developed its custom Trainium3 chip specifically to compete directly with Nvidia, which continues to maintain a dominant foothold in the global market for graphics processing units. These specialized semiconductor chips serve as the foundational hardware powering the ongoing artificial intelligence boom.
Amazon Web Services previously demonstrated confidence in Decart’s technical team and strategic vision by offering the startup early access to the custom chip last year, following high-level meetings between representatives of both companies that left Amazon executives deeply impressed with Decart’s founding team.
If the acquisition of Decart successfully crosses the finish line, it would represent one of the most substantial corporate buyouts in Amazon’s history. The roughly $7 billion price tag would surpass Amazon’s notable $6.5 billion acquisition of the historic Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film and television studio in 2022. It also follows another major capital deployment earlier this year, when Amazon announced an agreement valued at approximately $11 billion to acquire satellite communications provider Globalstar, a major competitor to Starlink, in a bid to drastically expand its telecommunications and connectivity ambitions.
The discussions surrounding Amazon and Decart also shed light on a fiercely competitive merger and acquisition market within the artificial intelligence sector. According to The Wall Street Journal, Israeli news outlet Calcalist recently reported that Decart had been engaged in advanced acquisition talks with another major technology titan. That development followed widespread industry reports from the previous month indicating that AI developer Anthropic had abruptly walked away from a planned $6 billion deal to acquire Decart.
The potential buyout negotiations unfold against the broader backdrop of Amazon’s aggressive integration of artificial intelligence across its vast commercial ecosystem. In another recent strategic push involving AI, PYMNTS spoke last month with Mary Beth Westmoreland, Amazon’s vice president of Worldwide Selling Partner Experience, regarding the company’s latest artificial intelligence initiatives tailored specifically for merchants operating on its platform.
That initiative represents a calculated shift away from traditional conversational chatbots that simply provide better answers, focusing instead on fundamentally reducing the frequency with which third-party merchants need to ask questions or troubleshoot issues in the first place. In her exclusive conversation with PYMNTS, Westmoreland explained that Amazon is actively expanding its Seller Assistant tool, transforming it from a standard conversational assistant into something resembling an underlying operating layer for independent businesses that utilize the marketplace.
Describing the scale of the rollout, Westmoreland noted that the company has successfully expanded the capability set from a relatively narrow band of functions to onboarding hundreds of distinct operational capabilities. The advanced Seller Assistant does not merely answer routine customer or platform inquiries. Instead, it possesses the capability to reason simultaneously across multiple complex business pillars, including inventory management, dynamic pricing, advertising strategies, consumer demand forecasting, and compliance regulations. Furthermore, the system is designed to remember how an individual merchant operates, continuously monitor the health of the business in real time, and execute authorized actions independently when granted explicit permission.
For the millions of third-party merchants who rely on the platform to drive their commercial enterprises, developments like the Seller Assistant have the potential to fundamentally transform artificial intelligence. Rather than serving as just another discrete software tool added to an already crowded digital toolkit, AI is increasingly positioned to become the core infrastructure through which businesses manage their day-to-day operations.
