Cognition is acquiring AI coding startup Windsurf days after Google snapped up Windsurf’s CEO and co-founders in a $2.4 billion reverse-acquihire.
The deal was announced Monday in a Cognition blog post. Cognition is buying Windsurf’s IP, product, and the employees left behind by Google’s hiring spree.
Google hired Windsurf’s CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and key research staff hours after OpenAI’s $3 billion offer to scoop Windsurf expired. That left about 250 employees untouched by Google’s deal. 
Windsurf had been growing fast, reaching $82 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR) and doubling enterprise ARR quarter-over-quarter. It claims 350 enterprise customers and hundreds of thousands of daily active users.
Cognition plans to build out its AI coding agent Devin with Windsurf’s tech and eventually merge Windsurf’s IP into its own products.
The transition wasn’t easy. Windsurf’s interim CEO Jeff Wang described the last three days as a “wildest rollercoaster ride” in a LinkedIn post:
The last 72 hours have been the wildest rollercoaster ride of my career.
To our new teammates at Cognition: we at Windsurf feel incredibly lucky to be joining a team that shares our vision, our deep commitment to our users, and – most importantly – our values.
Windsurf employees who joined in the past year reportedly missed out on payouts from Google’s acquihire. Cognition promises 100% of Windsurf staff will participate financially in the new deal and have vesting cliffs waived.
This deal ramps up the cutthroat race to own the best AI coding tools. More updates on this story as they come.
