The potential sale marks a remarkably rapid ascent for the three-year-old company, which specializes in real-time video generation technology. Just three months ago, Decart secured a $300 million funding round at a valuation of approximately $4 billion. A sale at the currently discussed figures would yield a substantial return for investors who have backed the company since its unusual $21 million Seed round.
SpaceX AI Strategy and Competing Bids
SpaceX has reportedly entered the fray to acquire Decart, potentially establishing its first research and development center in Tel Aviv using the startup as its base. Musk has tracked Decart since 2024, when the company launched Oasis, a real-time video generation game that reached 1 million users in three days and surpassed ChatGPT in downloads. Musk and Decart co-founder Dean Leitersdorf have remained in regular contact since Musk posted “wow” on X after trying the game.
SpaceX recently raised $75 billion in its IPO to expand its AI infrastructure and advance the Grok large language model. Immediately after going public, SpaceX acquired AI startup Cursor for $60 billion. Adding Decart’s capabilities could represent another layer in Musk’s strategy to deepen his computing and cloud infrastructure activities, as Decart’s software is capable of extracting more computing power from the same hardware.
Amazon and Israeli-based cloud company Nebius are also evaluating bids for the Israeli AI startup. Amazon, which historically avoids paying massive sums for acquisitions, recently spent $11 billion to acquire satellite company Globalstar to compete with Musk’s Starlink. Decart is estimated to have revenue of several tens of millions of dollars, with uneven growth driven largely by projects carried out for chip manufacturers. Until recently, Nvidia was negotiating to acquire Decart, but those talks fell apart after higher offers emerged.
Founders and Future Trajectory
Founded in 2023 by Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, Decart has raised approximately $450 million and employs only about 100 people. Leitersdorf, 27, completed a doctorate in computer science at 23 and serves as CEO. Shalev, 38, is CPO. The two met while serving in Unit 8200 and recently brought in Yossi Sariel, who commanded the unit during their service.
Decart gained international attention before it was even a year old by releasing a demonstration of Oasis, a game that generates video in real time and allows each player to create a different virtual reality. The technology quickly generated revenue, but the company did not want to become a gaming company. Over the past two years, it has searched for a business direction to turn its underlying technology into a broader product. Its main technological advantage is the ability to generate video at significantly lower costs than competing models.
Leitersdorf has long spoken about ambitions that go far beyond building a successful startup. “We want to be the Google, Apple or Facebook of AI,” Leitersdorf and Shalev said in a previous interview, describing their ambition to create a company after which the world would be different.
The company’s funding history reflects extraordinary investor interest from the moment it was founded. Its $21 million Seed round was led by Sequoia Capital with the participation of Oren Zeev. Just one month later, Decart raised another $25 million at a valuation of approximately $500 million, led by Benchmark. Less than a year later, the company raised another round at a valuation of $3.1 billion, bringing its total funding to $153 million before the additional $300 million round announced in May.
The connection between Musk and Decart also extends to Shaun Maguire, a Sequoia Capital partner who has backed the company since its Seed round. Maguire, a vocal supporter of Israel, organized Musk’s visit to the country after Oct. 7, during which Musk toured the Gaza border area. Maguire is considered close to Musk, potentially giving SpaceX an inside track in the current bidding war.
What Happens Next
If the Decart acquisition closes within the coming week, it will validate the massive premium placed on efficient AI video generation and compute optimization. A SpaceX victory would signal a deeper integration of AI software into aerospace, satellite networks, and large language model training. For the broader Israeli AI startup ecosystem, a $6 billion exit demonstrates that massive international capital remains eager to pursue cutting-edge compute technology, regardless of regional instability.
— David Kim, technology desk, AXO News