Hard Fork AI Anthropic Acquires Vercept Amidst Pentagon Standoff
Feb 26, 2026
A tense corporate takeover and public meltdown over a startup acquisition. A detailed look at how new tooling plugs into advanced code and browser workflows. A high-stakes standoff with the US military over unrestricted access to powerful models. A broader clash between safety-minded tech practices and defense demands.
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Anthropic Buying Vercept To Boost Computer Use AI
- Anthropic acquired Vercept to deepen its computer-use AI capabilities like Chrome-based agents that directly manipulate web apps.
- Jaeden Schafer describes using Claude Code's Chrome extension to automate Google Cloud setup and spreadsheet tasks without being a developer.
Host Used Claude Code To Setup Google Cloud
- Jaeden Schafer used Claude Code's Chrome extension to complete a Google Cloud backend setup that a contractor couldn't finish.
- He walked Claude through Google Cloud and got the integration working for his podcast tooling without writing code himself.
Promising AI2 Spinout Folded Quickly Into Anthropic
- Vercept came out of the Allen Institute (AI2) with high-profile investors and rapid fundraising yet folded into Anthropic within a year.
- Jaeden notes Vercept raised ~$50M, had notable backers like Eric Schmidt and Jeff Dean, but its team is largely moving to Anthropic while some founders publicly criticized the exit.