In Assassin's Creed, what modern corporation operates the Animus project?

In Assassin's Creed, Abstergo Industries operates the Animus project. The corporation presents itself as a powerful multinational company, but it secretly represents the modern-day Templar Order and uses genetic memories for its own purposes.

The Animus allows a subject to experience memories inherited through an ancestor's DNA. In the first game, Desmond Miles is forced to use the machine while Abstergo employee Warren Vidic supervises the experiments. Abstergo is therefore both a business setting and the modern face of the series' long-running Templar opposition.

Abstergo Industries is fictional and should not be confused with a real pharmaceutical, technology, or security company. Its name appears throughout the franchise, including games involving later Animus users and the entertainment division that creates commercial products based on historical memories.