On August 10, 2026, Israeli publication CTech reported that NVIDIA was in advanced negotiations to acquire AI startup Decart, with SpaceX, Amazon and Nebius reportedly among those interested in the deal, which was valued at $6–7bn.
Haaretz reported on August 11 that Elon Musk denied reports that SpaceX was seeking to acquire Decart, calling them “fake news”.
On August 13, Bloomberg reported that Anthropic was in talks to acquire Decart in a deal worth about $6bn.
Then came a twist. Bloomberg reported on September 8, 2026, that Anthropic walked away from the deal after conducting “due diligence”. Despite the walk-away, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the two companies may still pursue other collaboration opportunities.
Why are big technology companies attracted to Decart? Decart is an Israeli artificial intelligence startup with the capability to build real-time generative video models as well as train generative interactive models.
In just 29 days, five different technology companies were linked by reports seeking to acquire Decart, a startup from Israel.
A Yoruba adage says, “Bí alágbède bá ń lu irin ní ojú kan, ohun kan ni ó ń wá.” If the blacksmith keeps striking the iron in the same place, it’s because he is looking for something.
To understand why the blacksmith keeps striking the same place, we look at the past behaviour of the big tech companies in Israel.
Between 2017 and 2025, four Israeli technology companies at the intersection of capabilities like computer vision, cloud security, semiconductors, and AI chips needed by big tech companies were acquired by big multinationals. These are: Mobileye (Intel, $15.3B, 2017), Habana Labs (Intel, $2B, 2019), Mellanox (NVIDIA, $7B, announced 2019, completed 2020) and Wiz (Google, $32B, announced 2025). If the failed acquisition talks of NVIDIA and Nebius with AI21 Labs in 2025 and 2026 are added to this frame, it shows a group of specialised startups taking on hard and knotty industry problems that needed to be resolved for “big tech” to stay ahead of competition. While it is not mere rhetoric to say that big tech has made the gem discovery within Israeli society, leaving it at that would not really reveal the gem in its complete shape and allure.
For a better appreciation of why startups in a small country are continually attracted by big tech companies, we need to stray into biology.
In Rory Sutherland’s piece of May 25, 2024, in The Spectator, titled “Harris Tweed, the miracle fabric”, he stated that evolutionary biology, rather than computing, should be used to understand technological changes. Sutherland invoked the concept, pointing to the “adjacent possible”, an idea from evolutionary thinking that explains how technology moves from one point to another. Quoting science writer Olivia Judson, who wrote: “Evolution by natural selection only works if each mutational step itself is advantageous. There’s no such thing as advantageous in a general sense. It’s advantageous in the circumstances you’re living in.”
As in evolution, where mutation creates variation in population characteristics and opens new possibilities, the early players in the Israeli tech ecosystem have experienced the same. The innovations in the Israeli tech ecosystem are not magical; they are built slowly and gradually.
For the level of attraction being experienced presently, it means that as possibilities emerge and are met with innovation, more nodes (startups and the connections between them) emerge, with more openings being created. Each player continually enlarges the boundaries of what existed before.
The startups are not radically different; rather, they use the innovation of early pioneers to introduce new vistas, reinforce them and create other possibilities to build on. With the rise of Mobileye, Habana Labs, Wiz and others making inroads into the technological terrain, it has not only brought about expansion and development in that sector, but it has also resulted in new opportunities for Decart and other startups.
One startup that does something novel paves the way for an emerging startup to start where the previous effort once ended, resulting in a cumulative framework.
Cumulative advantage is not cosmic; it is an aggregation of knowledge, time, relationships, and problem-solving that makes the next nut easier to crack.
Unit 8200 is one of the institutional mechanisms that enables the cumulative framework. It absorbs 18-year-old Israelis who exhibit extreme proclivities in mathematics, programming, and analytical thinking into the military. Here, they not only bond, but they are also exposed to technically demanding work like cryptography, cyber, and other fields; they also face real-life problems in complex intelligence operations. Decart’s two founders, Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, were alumni; likewise, all four founders of Wiz were alumni.
At the end of the service, which is often longer than compulsory military service, the conscripts have not only bonded; they have also faced different scenarios that have broadened their thinking and expanded their knowledge. As civilians, they simply cement their fraternity by teaming up and applying their knowledge to new frontiers.
Unit 8,200 is not only a nursery for experimentation, but it is also a melting pot of different characters and interactions, and an avenue for sharing knowledge and decision-making that enhances solving real-life problems.
Having established the backstory of Israeli startups, their ability to innovate and expand new possibilities, as well as the mechanism that enhances the same, the next question is why the big tech giants rely so much on buying rather than building.
Apart from the fact that the technology industry is fast-paced, with precocious talents, the urge to get to the market first with innovation when competitors are still on the drawing board is a strong force that pervades the industry.
To achieve this, most multinationals look up to the startups with Raymond Loewy’s “MAYA, or ‘Most Advanced Yet Acceptable’” principle as a guide. They ask: Does the innovation from the startup enhance our existing product? Is the innovation something of seismic proportion, or something new with familiarity?
Once the answers to these questions are “Yes”, the big tech companies start looking for ways to begin talks of a possible acquisition before other blacksmiths show interest. Over time, through enabling mechanisms and adjacent possibilities, the Israeli startups have mastered how to play in a way that balances novelty and familiarity that matters in the eyes of the multinationals, thereby making them come again and again to that revolving door of new possibilities.
As it stands, none of the blacksmiths has shaped the iron, as no deal has been signed. Decart, like all other startups acquired before it, is doing something right, but right does not equate to perfection; Anthropic’s walking away after due diligence may hint at jagged edges in the ecosystem.
According to the 2025 High-Tech Report by the Israel Innovation Authority, about 1,500 deep-tech companies are operating in Israel, and they raised over $28bn between 2019 and 2025, making Israel the leading deep-tech fundraising hub outside the USA.
Also, in the years under review, Israel attracted 20 per cent of global cyber investments and 10% of global investments in medical devices and AgriFood. Here, the positive ends, as the report portrayed stagnation in VC fundraising and new startup creation. Unfortunately, the continuation of new possibilities for Israeli startups is being threatened.
A year later, a 2026 report from the same organisation showed that Israel still maintained its standing as one of the world’s leading technology hubs. Its high-tech output increased by 8.2 per cent, with a 30 per cent increase in capital raising, record-level exits, and a record share of high-tech in Israeli exports.
Perhaps the best-fitting comment to show the progress and imperfection in the Israeli tech ecosystem is the comment by Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, in the 2026 report: “The report’s findings show that Israeli high-tech continues to demonstrate exceptional strength and resilience, while also reflecting the sector’s real challenges”. The challenge, he noted, is not for Israel to keep generating innovation, but to ensure that innovation creates value, jobs, and growth in Israel.
Decart need not be bowed by the walk-away; some early players like Wiz saw deals stall before being revisited.
The attention Decart has garnered shows they are on track; only the road is long.
We are in a fast-moving technology world; the competition is brutal, and as such, the blacksmith cannot afford to drop the hammer, knowing full well the mechanisms like Unit 8,200, Magshimim (the cyber training programme for teens), and others that keep the anvil in place are still functional.
At some point on the long road, the blacksmith will be back. But the House of Israel has to be ready to maximise the gains.
Toluwalope Shodunke, Media Practitioner, writes via [email protected]