Anthropic’s been eyeing confidential AI. It just made its move with another acquihire.
Anthropic’s done it again. On Tuesday, Opaque Systems announced a new agreement with Anthropic that “carries Opaque’s work forward.” Vague The post Anthropic’s been eyeing confidential AI. It just made its move with another acquihire. appeared first on The New Stack .
Anthropic has made another acquisition, this time with a company named Opaque Systems. The agreement marks the third time Anthropic has acquired a startup in recent months. The deal involves Anthropic licensing Opaque's technology and bringing on board some of its employees, including Opaque CEO Aaron Fulkerson and CTO Rishabh Poddar. The acquisition is focused on adding expertise in confidential AI to Anthropic's arsenal.
Opaque Systems has been working on confidential AI technology for the past decade, starting as a research project at UC Berkeley's RISELab in 2012. The company's goal was to enable organizations to use their most sensitive data while keeping it private, even while it's being used. Opaque has been credited with defining the category of confidential AI, which involves verifiable computing on sensitive data.
While both Anthropic and Opaque are being tight-lipped about the details of the deal, it's clear that Opaque brings a significant amount of expertise to the table. The company has already made a name for itself in the industry, closing a $24 million Series B round with a $300 million valuation this year and spearheading several industry initiatives, including the Confidential Computing Summit and an open standard for verifiable AI governance.
Anthropic has been transparent about its interest in confidential AI, with its CISO Jason Clinton appearing on Opaque's AI Confidential podcast and Anthropic publishing research on confidential inference. The company's interest in confidential computing dates back to at least 2024, when it was named as a customer and partner of Opaque.
The acquisition raises questions about what will happen to Opaque's open-source ecosystem and the developers relying on it. Opaque's CEO, Aaron Fulkerson, acknowledges that the future of the technology and community he helped build remains uncertain. However, he expresses optimism that Anthropic's resources could help take Opaque's confidential computing technology from the research stage to production, benefiting the entire industry.
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