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<\/p>\n\u2018CEOs have a long tail of AI engineering needs, and require a partner who can help them fully realize what frontier AI can do to accelerate their business,\u2019 Ode CEO and co-founder Chris Taylor said.<\/p>\n
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Ode, the artificial intelligence services company Claude maker Anthropic formed with a $1.5 billion financial commitment that includes funding from leading finance firms, has bought a fellow AI services firm.<\/p>\n
San Francisco-based AI upstart Anthropic revealed back in May that it is building its own AI services company while also investing in its solution provider channel partner ecosystem. The AI services company acquired Fractional AI that same month. And in July, the services company revealed the name Ode with Anthropic and that Fractional\u2019s co-founders would lead Ode.<\/p>\n
Now, Ode has acquired Casper Studios to strengthen its capabilities around building skills, connectors and context within Anthropic products and unlock Claude within the systems teams already use.<\/p>\n
[RELATED: Anthropic Forms AI Services Company Amid Claude Partner Network Push<\/a>]<\/p>\n Ode With Anthropic Buys Casper Studios<\/p>\n CRN has reached out to Anthropic and Ode for comment.<\/p>\n Tony Olzak, chief technology officer at Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider Trace3\u2014No. 36<\/a> on CRN\u2019s 2026 Solution Provider 500, a CRN 2026 MSP 500 honoree<\/a> and partner of Anthropic\u2014told CRN in a recent interview that the vendor\u2019s products are critical for the solution provider\u2019s projects around enabling autonomous enterprises.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Trace3 revealed a strategic partnership with Anthropic around accelerating enterprise adoption of Claude and moving customers beyond AI experimentation by designing, deploying and scaling secure, governed AI products and services that deliver measurable business outcomes. The solution provider offers a framework called \u201cYour Path to Claude with Trace3\u201d that includes assessing where Claude generates the greatest value in a business.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re hurtling toward a very aggressive progression through their partner program,\u201d Olzak said.<\/p>\n Trace3 and Ode also share, notably, a relationship with financial services firm Apollo Global Management. The firm\u2019s Apollo Funds wing acquired<\/a> Trace3 last year. And Apollo is one of the financial backers of Ode alongside groups including General Atlantic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs, Leonard Green & Partners, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and Sequoia Capital.<\/p>\n The Growing FDE Movement<\/p>\n Microsoft<\/a>, OpenAI<\/a>, Salesforce<\/a> and Amazon Web Services (AWS<\/a>) are among the other channel-oriented vendors that have also made investments in these forward-deployed engineering (FDE) arms, positioning these teams as complementary to solution providers as opposed to taking away work performed by solution providers.<\/p>\n Casper Studios CEO and co-founder Jay Singh and other members of the company are joining San Francisco-based Ode, Ode CEO and Fractional AI co-founder Chris Taylor said in a statement. Fellow Fractional co-founder Eddie Siegel serves as Ode\u2019s chief technology officer.<\/p>\n \u201cCEOs have a long tail of AI engineering needs, and require a partner who can help them fully realize what frontier AI can do to accelerate their business,\u201d Taylor said in a statement. \u201cAfter collaborating with Jay\u2019s team on multiple engagements, we recognized a shared DNA and a commitment to overdelivering for the client. We\u2019re thrilled to have them under the Ode umbrella.\u201d<\/p>\n Singh\u2019s company previously collaborated with Ode to help a shared client\u2014the Sphera operational intelligence platform\u2014reduce bottlenecks from time-intensive operational tasks by 70 percent, according to an Ode statement. Ode built a custom internal tool for the project and Casper Studios automated a variety of processes in customer support, consulting and project planning.<\/p>\n What Is Casper Studios?<\/p>\n Before the acquisition announcement, Casper Studios revealed in June that it had achieved Select Services Partner status in the Claude Partner Network, according to the company\u2019s website. The company has specialties in working with enterprises, financial services, healthcare, and media and entertainment.<\/p>\n The company even has a Casper AI Chrome extension to help users summarize written content and a Yap AI voice-to-text product for turning spoken thoughts into podcasts.<\/p>\n