In short: The founders and prime researchers of AI coding startup Windsurf have introduced that they may be part of Google’s DeepMind crew, successfully ending OpenAI’s $3 billion bid to buy the corporate. Windsurf will stay unbiased as Google won’t be taking a stake and its new licensing cope with the agency is non-exclusive.
Sources advised Bloomberg that Google agreed to pay about $2.4 billion to rent Windsurf founders Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen, together with some R&D workers. The Verge reviews that the brand new hires will primarily assist develop Google’s Gemini AI platform.
Windsurf introduced that Jeff Wang, its Head of Enterprise who joined the corporate in 2023, will take over as interim CEO. World Gross sales VP Graham Moreno will function president.
Based in 2021, Windsurf, previously often called Codeium, raised over $200 million in enterprise capital from Greenoaks Capital Companions, AIX Ventures, and different traders. A cope with Normal Catalyst final yr valued the AI coding platform at $1.25 billion; the 2 firms ultimately tried a $3 billion valuation with Kleiner Perkins.
Windsurf agreed to an acquisition by OpenAI at that worth earlier this yr, however the deal reportedly collapsed over considerations that Microsoft would achieve Windsurf’s mental property. Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI grants it entry to the ChatGPT-maker’s know-how. Shopping for Windsurf would have helped OpenAI compete with generative AI coding platforms like Microsoft-owned GitHub.
The transfer by Google is the most recent instance of a tech big poaching prime expertise from a startup with out buying the corporate outright. Microsoft, Meta, and different corporations have lately made related offers, doubtless utilizing the tactic to keep away from antitrust scrutiny.
Additionally learn: The rise of AI coding instruments: Is English the recent new programming language?
Programming is likely one of the areas that has seen essentially the most disruption from generative AI. Corporations like Windsurf declare that giant language fashions can allow customers to put in writing code extra shortly than ever utilizing pure language prompts.
Business figures, together with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and legendary programmer John Carmack, have hailed AI as a basic shift in software program design. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella lately admitted that AI now writes round 30% of the corporate’s code, whereas CTO Kevin Scott boasted that 95% of code will come from AI by 2030.
Nonetheless, critics declare that the know-how is vulnerable to error and stays inept at sure duties. A latest paper from the AI analysis group METR states that, though builders and consultants declare the know-how quickens coding by between 10% and 50%, it really makes programmers about 19% slower.
