Viral Claim Says Nationalism Killed Anthropic's $6B Israeli Deal, But Evidence Is Lacking

JERUSALEM (VINnews) - Anthropic has walked away from a potential $6 billion acquisition of Israeli AI startup Decart, prompting widespread speculation in Israel about what caused the deal to collapse.

One explanation that gained traction on Israeli social media and among Israeli tech commentators, including Hillel Fuld, was that Decart's founders wanted the company to remain in Israel rather than move key operations to San Francisco.

That narrative was widely celebrated as a story of Israeli founders refusing to leave the country. But there is no public evidence establishing that nationalism was the reason Anthropic abandoned the deal.

Bloomberg reported that Anthropic had conducted extensive due diligence before deciding not to proceed. Other reporting has raised questions about Decart's technology, business model and valuation, offering a potentially very different explanation for the collapse.

Decart had been valued at about $4 billion in its most recent funding round, making the reported $6 billion-plus acquisition proposal a substantial premium.

Neither Anthropic nor Decart has publicly explained why the deal fell apart.

For now, the claim that the founders rejected the deal because they wanted to keep Decart in Israel remains unverified speculation -- while the actual reason Anthropic walked away remains unknown.