Anthropic Acquires AI Startup Vercept to Supercharge Claude's Computer Use Capabilities

Claude's Computer Use Gets a Boost

Anthropic announced the acquisition of Seattle AI startup Vercept on February 25, 2026, folding its desktop "computer use" technology and team into Claude as the race to build AI agents that can operate software intensifies.

About Vercept

Founded by alumni of the Allen Institute for AI, Vercept had created tools for complex agentic tasks, including its product Vy — a computer-use agent in the cloud that could operate a remote Apple MacBook. The startup had raised $16 million in a June 2025 seed round led by Fifty Years, with investors including Eric Schmidt and Jeff Dean.

The Team

Vercept's nine-person team, including co-founders Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick, will join Anthropic after winding down external products. Vy will shut down in 30 days as part of the transition.

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Impact on Claude

The acquisition has already contributed to Claude's dramatic computer use improvement: on OSWorld, a widely-used evaluation for AI computer use, Claude's scores went from under 15% in late 2024 to 72.5% today — approaching human-level performance on tasks like navigating complex spreadsheets and completing web forms.

Strategic Context

This is Anthropic's second acquisition following the Bun runtime purchase in December 2025. Both acquisitions signal Anthropic's aggressive push into agentic AI — systems that don't just generate text but actually operate computers and write software.

Source: Anthropic | TechCrunch | GeekWire | SiliconANGLE

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