Windsurf is Acquired by Cognition

Just days after Google hired acquired some of its top talent, AI coding editor maker Windsurf was acquired by Cognition, an autonomous software engineering agent innovator.

“We’re delighted to share that Windsurf is being acquired by Cognition,” the Windsurf announcement post reads. “Our world-class team will be joining forces with the iconic company that created Devin, the world’s first autonomous software engineering agent. Our users and customers will remain in steady hands and enjoy better product innovation than ever. And finally, Windsurf’s unique IP will also become integrated into Cognition, helping the joint team continue to push the frontier of AI coding capabilities.”

It’s been a crazy couple of months for Windsurf. In May, OpenAI planned to acquire the company for $3 billion, but that deal was killed after Microsoft refused to authorize it. And so Google hired Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and some members of the Windsurf R&D team while paying the firm $2.4 billion for a non-exclusive license to its technologies. Now, Windsurf will become part of another company with an AI-powered coding tool. So where it would have filled a hole at OpenAI, this merger is more complementary.

“Among all the teams in the AI space, Cognition was literally the one we have respected the most, and they are a perfect fit to bring Windsurf to the next phase,” Windsurf CEO Wang told employees. “Cognition is the leading applied AI company, and its flagship agent Devin is already deployed in production-grade codebases at some of the world’s largest companies. Their revenue growth is extraordinary: even faster than our own breakneck pace.”

The price of the acquisition is currently unknown, but this deal was structured to benefit employees who felt slighted when some top talent left for Google: Each will see their vesting schedules accelerate so they can participate financially.

All’s well that ends well, I guess.