Anthropic acquires a startup to accelerate the development of AI agents capable of using your computer

The race for AI agents capable of interacting directly with our computers is intensifying, and after strengthening its offering around software development, Anthropic is pursuing its vertical integration strategy.

Indeed, the American company has just announced the acquisition of the startup Vercept. This acquisition illustrates the growing ambitions of AI labs to move beyond simple chatbots and establish themselves as true operational assistants…

Computer Use: A New Frontier for Claude

With this acquisition, Anthropic intends to accelerate its development of what it calls "computer use." The company uses this term to refer to AI capable of interacting with a computer interface like a human: understanding what is displayed on the screen, navigating software, filling out forms, or manipulating spreadsheets.

In concrete terms, this would allow Claude to execute complex, multi-step tasks in real-world applications, and no longer solely through code or APIs. Progress is significant, so much so that on the OSWorld benchmark dedicated to these uses, Sonnet models have gone from less than 15% success rate at the end of 2024 to 72.5% today.

Version Claude Code 2.1.0 already emphasizes autonomous software development via the terminal, and Sonnet 4.6 approaches human-level performance for navigating complex spreadsheets or managing multiple browser tabs.

Vercept, a Seattle gem acquired at its peak

Founded in 2024 by former researchers from the Allen Institute for AI, Vercept's mission was to design the "computer interface of the future". Its flagship product, Vy, was an agent capable of remotely operating a MacBook and automating tasks via natural language instructions. The startup had raised $16 million in a funding round, before reaching more than $50 million in cumulative funding, according to its CEO, Kiana Ehsani. Investors included prominent figures such as Eric Schmidt and Jeff Dean. A complete shutdown in a month. Despite a team of around twenty people and a working product, Vercept was operating in a particularly competitive environment. In a message to users on its website, the company announced the upcoming closure of Vy, with a complete shutdown within 30 days. Co-founders Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick are joining Anthropic, while other key figures like Oren Etzioni will not be part of the venture. This acquisition comes as tech giants are multiplying their initiatives in autonomous agents, such as OpenAI with Operator, Google with Project Mariner, and Microsoft, which is pushing Copilot toward screen-scale automation on Windows. Anthropic is thus consolidating its position to make Claude a true IT co-pilot, capable of operating at the heart of everyday digital tools.