Cognition agrees to buy what’s left of Windsurf

AI builders are starving for agentic integrated development environments (IDEs), which help developers code more efficiently and thus, ideally, speed up production. And nowhere has this been more apparent than in the tug-of-war over Windsurf.

In the latest development, AI coding startup Cognition has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the rival platform, giving it access to Windsurf’s product, brand, and remaining employees. This comes after Google pulled Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, cofounder Douglas Chen, and several R&D employees into its Google DeepMind team in a $2.4 billion talent and licensing grab.

It also follows the surprise termination of the expected $3 billion purchase of Windsurf by OpenAI that seemed all but a done deal, but didn’t materialize due to intellectual property (IP) tensions with Microsoft, a key OpenAI partner and investor. Over a period of 72 hours, OpenAI’s purchase offer expired, Google hired away Windsurf’s top leaders and team members, and Cognition swooped in to snap up the remaining assets.Cognition agrees to buy what’s left of Windsurf – ComputerworldRead More