Anthropic Acquires Confidential AI Startup Opaque Systems

Anthropic has acquired Opaque Systems, a confidential‑AI company that uses hardware techniques to keep data protected while it is used for training and inference. The deal was announced last week, with Opaque saying its team will join Anthropic, but the financial terms were not disclosed. Opaque is winding down its own operations as it integrates its technology into Anthropic’s platform.

Background of Opaque Systems

Background of Opaque Systems Opaque began as a research project at UC Berkeley’s RISELab a decade ago. The founders include Ion Stoica, co‑founder of Databricks and Anyscale, and Raluca Ada Popa, a researcher now at Google DeepMind. In October 2023 Aaron Fulkerson became CEO, and the company has since turned its confidential computing research into production AI deployments.

The company originally focused on protecting data and models, but as AI evolved it broadened its scope to verifiable AI. Opaque now provides cryptographic evidence that shows what code ran, where it ran, and under which policies, thereby replacing traditional trust assumptions. It has also contributed to community projects such as the Agent Governance Toolkit, TRACE, Confidential MCP and Weight Custody Manifest that address trust and security for AI agents and models.

The startup raised a $24 million Series B round at a $300 million valuation this year and lists Anthropic, ServiceNow and Accenture among its customers. With the acquisition, Opaque’s team will continue its work inside Anthropic, but the company has not clarified how the wind‑down will affect its existing clients.