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Artificial intelligence • Enterprise • M&A • Startups

AI Talent Wars Heat Up As Cognition Scoops Up Windsurf After OpenAI Deal Falls Apart

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In an unexpected turn of events, artificial intelligence startup this week that it is acquiring AI coding startup .

The deal comes just days after news broke that OpenAI’s planned $3 billion buy of Windsurf had fallen apart. then announced the same day that it had hired , Windsurf’s CEO and co-founder, and that it was paying $2.4 billion to license Windsurf’s technology and for compensation. A number of other senior staff would reportedly be going to also work for Google.

Competition for talent in the AI space is heated, and the news was considered to be a big blow for OpenAI.

For its part, Cognition says it is buying Windsurf’s intellectual property, product, trademark, brand and “strong business.� It did not reveal its purchase price. As part of the deal, the employees who were not hired by Google will be going to work for Cognition.

San Francisco-based Cognition has built an AI coding agent called Devin that supposedly helps engineers build software faster. Founded in late 2023, the startup has raised nearly $200 million in funding from investors such as ,,,, and 1, per °µÍø³Ô¹Ï .

Also backed by Founders Fund, Windsurf has raised over $240 million since its 2021 inception. Other investors include , and . According to Cognition’s announcement, Windsurf has $82 million in annual recurring revenue “with enterprise ARR doubling quarter-over-quarter.� Its user base includes over 350 enterprise customers and “hundreds of thousands� of daily active users.

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