Amazon in talks to buy AI startup Decart for around $7 billion, WSJ reports

JUST IN: Amazon is in talks to buy AI startup Decart for around $7 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Amazon wants to buy an AI startup for seven billion dollars.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is in talks to acquire Decart, a young AI company, at a price tag of around seven billion. Talks, not a done deal, but that number alone tells you how seriously Amazon is taking this.

And think about what seven billion says. Amazon doesn't usually write cheques like that, its biggest acquisition ever was Whole Foods at under fourteen billion. So Andy Jassy putting half a Whole Foods on the table for a startup most people have never heard of means Amazon thinks it's behind in the AI race and is willing to pay to catch up. Microsoft has OpenAI, Google has Gemini, and Amazon has been the quiet one for too long.

If this closes, it would be one of the biggest AI acquisitions ever. Talks can collapse, but nobody floats seven billion to the Journal by accident.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.