Anthropic Acquires Opaque Systems and Hires Part of Its Team

Anthropic has agreed to acquire Opaque Systems, a startup specializing in confidential computing and verifiable AI, without disclosing the deal value, according to Constellation Research.

Constellation describes the arrangement as an acqui-hire, with Anthropic licensing Opaque's technology and joining part of its team to Anthropic, rather than purchasing the company with all its assets and operations.

Opaque was spun out of the RISELab at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-founded by Raluca Ada Popa, having previously raised a $24 million Series B round.

This comes at a time when major AI labs are racing to recruit teams specializing in data protection and model output verification, making this deal part of a broader race for scarce technical talent rather than an asset acquisition.

What do these terms mean?

Acqui-hire: A deal primarily aimed at acquiring a talented technical team, often involving technology licensing and hiring a portion of the workforce instead of buying the entire company.

Confidential Computing: A technology that allows data processing within an isolated, encrypted environment so that no one, not even the service provider, can access it.

Verifiable AI: Systems whose outputs can be proven to follow specific rules, rather than relying on blind trust in the final result.

Series B Round: A funding round that follows the Seed and Series A rounds, typically used to expand operations and reach new markets.