AI company Anthropic announced on Wednesday the acquisition of Seattle-based AI startup Vercept. This marks another key move for Anthropic around its developer product "Claude Code," following its previous acquisition of the code agent engine Bun in December last year. As part of the deal, Vercept's products will be shut down on March 25.
Vercept developed tools for complex intelligent tasks, including the cloud-based computer agent product Vy, which can remotely control an Apple MacBook. It was seen as one of the pioneers exploring the path of "redefining personal computers in the AI era."
The company was born in the Seattle AI incubator A12, which originated from the Allen Institute for AI. Several co-founders were previously researchers at the institute. Co-founder Matt Deitke previously gained attention for negotiating a $250 million compensation agreement with Meta and joining its Superintelligence Lab. In this acquisition, Deitke did not join Anthropic but publicly congratulated his former colleagues on X platform.
Vercept raised a total of $50 million, including a $16 million seed round in January last year. Seth Bannon, founder of A12, led the investment. The angel investor list includes Eric Schmidt, Jeff Dean, Kyle Vogt, and Arash Ferdowsi.
According to Anthropic's announcement, members such as co-founders Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick have joined the company, but not all founders will follow. Oren Etzioni, Vercept's other co-founder and also an investor, expressed dissatisfaction. He criticized the company on LinkedIn for shutting down the product just over a year after its launch, providing only a 30-day migration period, calling it "regrettable." Etzioni is also a professor at the University of Washington and an AI startup investor.
Etzioni later publicly argued with investor Seth Bannon on LinkedIn, exchanging accusations regarding the company's commercialization capabilities and management issues. Although disputes among investors may carry limited symbolic meaning, they reflect the fierce competition in the AI sector for top research talent and technical assets.
The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Etzioni said his investment yielded a positive return, but admitted disappointment that the company "basically gave up" during a period of strong growth. In contrast, Ehsani stated on social media that joining Anthropic was the "better path to accelerate her vision."
With the Vercept team integrated, Anthropic further strengthens its position in the AI agent and developer tools field. As major model companies accelerate vertical integration and compete for research and engineering talent, such "talent + technology" acquisitions are becoming the norm in the industry.
