Amazon is in talks to acquire the AI startup Decart for around $7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, a deal that would rank among the company's largest investments in artificial intelligence and deepen its rivalry with Google, Microsoft and Meta in the race to own consumer-facing generative AI.

The report, which the Journal labeled an exclusive, states that negotiations are ongoing. Neither Amazon nor Decart has confirmed the talks, and no signed agreement, final price or expected closing timeline appears in the reporting. A deal at roughly $7 billion would place the transaction in the same bracket as the sector's most aggressive mid-scale AI acquisitions of the past two years.

Who is Decart and why would Amazon pay $7 billion?

Decart is a startup building generative AI models, and the reported price signals that Amazon values the company's model development capabilities more than its current revenue. Exact figures for Decart's revenue, user base or headcount did not appear in the Journal's report.

For Amazon, the strategic logic is straightforward. Its cloud division, Amazon Web Services, sells AI compute and model access to enterprises, while its consumer devices business has lagged competitors in shipping a breakout generative AI product. Buying a model developer outright, rather than licensing one, would give Amazon exclusive control over the underlying technology.

The reported talks follow a broader pattern of large technology companies absorbing AI startups at steep premiums rather than building equivalent capability internally, a trend regulators in the US and Europe have scrutinized closely.

What does a $7 billion deal say about AI valuations?

A price near $7 billion for a startup would confirm that private AI company valuations remain elevated even as investors question when generative AI spending will translate into durable profits. Amazon itself has committed tens of billions of dollars to AI infrastructure, including data center capacity and custom silicon, and an acquisition of this size would extend that spending from hardware into model development.

Key points from the report:

• Amazon is in talks to buy Decart for around $7 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The Journal described the story as an exclusive; the talks are not finalized.
• Neither company has publicly confirmed the negotiation, the price or a timeline.
• A completed deal would count among Amazon's largest AI acquisitions to date.

How does this fit Amazon's AI strategy?

Amazon has already positioned AI as the central growth driver for AWS, its most profitable segment. Acquiring Decart would add proprietary model talent and technology to a portfolio that currently includes custom training and inference chips as well as partnerships with external model providers.

The move would also match competitive pressure. Microsoft holds a major stake in OpenAI, Google owns DeepMind, and Meta develops its models in-house. A Decart purchase would give Amazon a fully owned model lab inside that same structure.

Whether the talks produce a signed agreement remains the open question. If the roughly $7 billion price holds, it would set a fresh reference point for what the largest cloud operators are willing to pay for generative AI startups — and signal that consolidation of model developers by hyperscalers is accelerating rather than cooling.