On Wednesday, Anthropic revealed its acquisition of Vercept, an AI startup with significant ties to some prominent figures in Seattle’s tech industry. This acquisition follows Anthropic’s purchase of the coding agent engine Bun in December, aimed at enhancing Claude Code.

Vercept developed tools for more sophisticated agentic functions, notably its product Vy, a cloud-based computer-use agent capable of operating a remote Apple MacBook. Vercept is among several startups focused on re-envisioning the personal computer for the AI agent era. As part of the agreement, Anthropic plans to discontinue Vercept’s product on March 25.

The startup emerged from Seattle’s A12 AI-centric incubator, which has connections to the established Allen Institute for AI. Vercept’s co-founders also have ties to the Allen Institute and were prior researchers there. One co-founder, Matt Deitke, gained attention last year as an AI researcher who secured a substantial $250 million salary from Meta to join its Superintelligence Lab. On Wednesday, Deitke publicly congratulated his former colleagues via a post on X.

Vercept was a relatively prominent AI startup within the region. In a LinkedIn announcement about Anthropic’s acquisition, Vercept CEO Kiana Ehsani mentioned that the startup had secured a total of $50 million in funding, highlighting A12’s Seth Bannon as the lead investor. Vercept had previously disclosed raising a $16 million seed round the previous January.

The list of angel investors was notably impressive, featuring former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean, Cruise founder Kyle Vogt, and Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi, as reported by GeekWire.

In Anthropic’s announcement regarding the acquisition, the company recognized co-founders Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick as part of the team transitioning to Anthropic. However, not all Vercept co-founders are joining the Claude creator.

Oren Etzioni, who has been identified as a co-founder of Vercept and an investor in the company, is a well-known figure in Seattle, recognized as the founding leader of the Allen Institute for AI. Alongside Deitke, he will not be joining Anthropic and expressed dissatisfaction regarding the acqui-hire. He shared on LinkedIn: “After just over a year, Vercept is conceding and giving their customers 30 days to exit the platform. It’s disappointing. A fantastic team is joining Anthropic. I wish them all the best!”

Etzioni also serves as a professor at the University of Washington and is noted for other startups he has either founded or supported as a venture capitalist. He did not reply to a request for comment.

In a LinkedIn post by Etzioni, he accused Bannon, the lead investor at Vercept, of being “partly responsible” for the company’s failure to recruit the right business personnel. A back and forth developed between the investors, with Bannon criticizing Etzioni’s comments: “… you undermined the heroic efforts of the founders for accomplishing an outcome that most could only dream of,” Bannon retorted in the LinkedIn thread. They also exchanged accusations regarding other unpleasant matters such as dishonesty and legal threats.

While public disagreements among investors can be entertaining and fundamentally trivial, the underlying motivations are significant. The stakes are high in creating the next major AI success, and now a promising startup that accumulated a reasonably sized capital will be integrated into Anthropic.

Although the specifics of the deal remain undisclosed, Etzioni indicates he achieved a return on his investment. Anthropic evidently sought these researchers, particularly with one of them now at Meta.

Nonetheless, Etzioni expressed to GeekWire his disappointment. “I’m happy to have received a positive return but obviously saddened that after just over a year with so much momentum, and such a fantastic team, we are essentially folding,” he stated.

Conversely, the founders joining Anthropic seem pleased, based on CEO Ehsani’s LinkedIn statement. “The alternatives were clear: we could either develop independently and pursue the same vision as two separate entities, or unite with an incredible team to accelerate that vision into reality. Choosing to join Anthropic became an easy decision,” she commented.