According to the Wall Street Journal, citing informed sources, Amazon is in talks to acquire the artificial intelligence startup Decart, with a potential valuation of around $7 billion (approximately 46.9 billion yuan). Reports say that if the negotiations do not fall through and no new bidders emerge, the deal could be finalized soon. In the current environment of chip shortages and the trend of self-reliance in chip development, this deal also reflects the anxiety of major companies over controlling computing power.

Attracted by Decart's cross-chip compatibility expertise

Based in San Francisco, Decart has a valuable skill that is becoming increasingly valuable: developing cross-chip compatibility software that allows developers to seamlessly switch between different AI chips. As major tech giants compete fiercely for computing power, the value of this underlying "translation layer" is rapidly rising — whoever can flexibly move models between different chips will not be bound to a single chip supplier. For Amazon, which owns AWS, having this scheduling capability in its hands adds another advantage for its cloud customers.

Previously targeted by Anthropic but then abandoned

The company's worth is not arbitrary. According to PitchBook data, Decart has raised more than $400 million from well-known venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, and Radical Ventures. Its valuation had approached $4 billion during its May funding round this year. More interestingly, Bloomberg reported in August that Anthropic once aimed to acquire Decart for about $6 billion, but by September, it was reported that the AI lab had abandoned the idea. Now, with Amazon stepping in, Decart's future is once again uncertain.