Anthropic announced that it has acquired Vercept, an AI startup that has created tools for more complex agentic tasks, including its product Vy, a computer-use agent in the cloud that could operate a remote Apple MacBook.
Vercept is one of the startups working on re-imagining the personal computer for the age of AI agents. Anthropic is shutting down Vercept’s product on March 25 as part of the deal.
This is Anthropic’s latest acquisition after it acquired Bun. Bun is the engine behind its fast-growing Claude Code programming agent, according to the company.
READ: Anthropic CEO says AI will exceed cognitive capabilities of most humans (
Vercept was a product of Seattle’s AI-focused incubator AI2, which spawned from the longstanding Allen Institute for AI. Vercept’s co-founders had roots with the Allen Institute, as well, and were previously researchers there.
Vercept CEO Kiana Ehsani said in a LinkedIn post that the startup had raised a total of $50 million. She mentioned that Fifty Years’ Seth Bannon, a board member, was the lead investor. Vercept previously announced it had raised a $16 million seed round last January.
Co-founders Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick are among the team set to join Anthropic after the acquisition. However, not all of Vercept’s co-founders are joining the Claude-maker.
Oren Etzioni, who has previously been named as a co-founder of Vercept and investor in the startup, will not be joining Anthropic. “After a little bit more than a year, Vercept is throwing in the towel and giving their customers 30 days to get off the platform. Sad. A fantastic team is joining Anthropic. I wish them the very best!” he posted on LinkedIn.
READ: Will AI make coders obsolete? Anthropic CEO’s comments fuel H1-B visa row (
Etzioni, who is also a professor at the University of Washington and known for other startups he’s founded and backed as a VC, accused Bannon, the Vercept lead investor, of being “partly responsible” for Vercept not hiring the correct business people, on LinkedIn. A back and forth ensued with Bannon condemning Etzioni’s remarks: “… you disparaged the heroic work of the founders for achieving an outcome most could only dream of,” Bannon replied in the LinkedIn string. They also accused each other of other less savory things like lying and legal threats.
The founders who joined Anthropic seem happy about the choice according to Ehsani’s post. “The choices were clear: we could build independently and work toward the same vision as two separate versions of it, or join forces with an incredible team and accelerate that vision into reality. The decision became an easy choice,” she said of joining Anthropic.