Anthropic licenses, releases Opaque in acquihire

Anthropic will acquirhire Opaque, which has specialized in confidential computing and AI.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Opaque CEO Aaron Fulkerson noted the deal here. The structure is one where Anthropic licenses Opaque and brings on some of the team.

Constellation Insights was among the first to interview Fulkerson when Opaque launched. Since that interview a few years ago, confidential computing morphed into confidential AI and grew into a category.

For its part, Opaque partnered with Nvidia, Intel, Microsoft and Google on confidential computing. After closing a $24 million series B round good for a $300 million valuation, Opaque rolled out a security framework and was adopted in Europe and UAE. In recent months, Opaque has been rolling out open standards for sovereign AI and on-prem deployments.

As for Anthropic, the deal makes sense as it increasingly courts enterprises that are eyeing on-premise deployments, open models and sovereign AI architectures.

In a post, Fulkerson said:

"We’re proud to share a new agreement with Anthropic that carries OPAQUE’s work forward. We’re excited to see its impact continue in shaping how AI is built and secured.

For us, this moment is also an opportunity to recognize what the entire OPAQUE team accomplished.

Opaque brought together researchers, engineers, product builders, marketers, sellers and operators who took extraordinarily difficult problems and made them practical. We built a company from university research. We helped establish confidential AI as a category. We advanced verifiable AI from an idea into working technology. And we helped demonstrate that some of the hardest security problems in AI could actually be solved."