Cognition, maker of the AI coding agent Devin, acquires Windsurf

Cognition, the startup behind the viral AI coding agent Devin, announced in a blog post on Monday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AI coding startup Windsurf.

The announcement comes just days after Google hired away Windsurf’s CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and research leaders in a $2.4 billion deal, a reverse-acquihire that left the rest of the startup’s 250-person team behind. Google’s deal occurred just hours after OpenAI’s $3 billion offer to acquire Windsurf expired, clearing the way for the AI coding startup to explore other options.

The frenzy to acquire Windsurf represents a new peak in the insane race to develop AI coding products.

“The last 72 hours have been the wildest rollercoaster ride of my career,” said Jeff Wang, Windsurf’s former head of business, who was made interim CEO of the startup days ago after Google hired the startup’s leaders, in a post on LinkedIn. “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.”

Cognition says it’s acquiring Windsurf’s IP and product, which include its AI-powered integrated development environment (IDE), alongside all of the employees who were not hired by Google.

Cognition did not announce the price it acquired Windsurf for; however, the company says Windsurf reached $82 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR), with enterprise ARR doubling quarter-over-quarter. Cognition says Windsurf’s user base reached at least 350 enterprise customers and “hundreds of thousands” of daily active users.

Windsurf’s team will focus on building out Devin, Cognition’s AI coding agent, in the intermediate term, the company said in a press release. Eventually, Cognition says it will integrate Windsurf’s IP and capabilities into its own products.

Over the weekend, The Information reported that Windsurf employees who had joined in the last year did not receive a payout in Google’s billion-dollar reverse-acquihire. Cognition notes in its blog post that 100% of Windsurf employees will participate financially in this deal, and have vesting cliffs waived for their work to date.

This is a developing story…