Anthropic on Wednesday announced it had acquired Seattle-based AI startup Vercept, deepening its push into agentic systems as competition intensifies among leading AI labs.
The deal comes months after Anthropic acquired coding agent engine, Bun in December to scale its Claude Code offering.

Vercept had built tools designed for complex, multi-step agentic workflows, including its flagship product, Vy—a cloud-based computer-use agent capable of operating a remote Apple MacBook. The startup was among a wave of companies attempting to reimagine the personal computer for an era in which AI agents autonomously navigate software and execute tasks.

As part of the acquisition, Anthropic will shut down Vercept’s product on March 25, effectively ending Vy’s commercial run. The move signals that Anthropic is primarily absorbing the team and underlying technology rather than continuing Vercept as a standalone platform.

Vercept emerged from A12, Seattle’s AI-focused incubator spun out of the Allen Institute for AI (AI2). Its co-founders—Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs, Ross Girshick and others—had prior research ties to the institute, underscoring the tight-knit connections between Seattle’s academic AI ecosystem and venture-backed startups.

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One of Vercept’s co-founders, Matt Deitke, drew national attention last year after reportedly negotiating a $250 million compensation package to join Meta’s Superintelligence Lab. Deitke is not joining Anthropic but publicly congratulated his former colleagues following news of the acquisition.

Vercept had raised a total of $50 million, according to CEO Kiana Ehsani, who disclosed the figure in a LinkedIn post announcing the transaction. The startup previously publicised a $16 million seed round last January, led by A12’s Seth Bannon. Its angel roster included high-profile names such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean, Cruise founder Kyle Vogt, and Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi.

Anthropic confirmed that Ehsani, Weihs and Girshick are among the team members joining the company. However, not all of Vercept’s founders are making the transition. Oren Etzioni—founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI and previously identified as a Vercept co-founder and investor—will not be joining Anthropic.

In a pointed LinkedIn post, Etzioni described the move as the company “throwing in the towel” after just over a year in operation, noting that customers had 30 days to migrate off the platform. While expressing disappointment over the shutdown, he praised the team joining Anthropic, highlighting both the promise and volatility of the rapidly evolving agentic AI sector.