Explore Cognition AI’s acquisition of Windsurf and its impact on AI, software development, and employee ownership in the tech industry.

OpenAI’s deal to buy Windsurf is off, and Google will instead hire Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, cofounder Douglas Chen, and some of Windsurf’s R&D employees and bring them onto the Google DeepMind team, Google and Windsurf announced Friday.

As of Friday, Windsurf’s head of business, Jeff Wang, will take over as the startup’s interim CEO, he announced in a post on social media. Most of Windsurf’s 250 person team is not headed to Google DeepMind and will continue offering its AI coding tools for enterprise customers.

The move is the culmination of a turbulent period for Windsurf, and indicates that agentic IDEs have become a new battleground.

AI startup Windsurf is officially off the marketbut not to OpenAI. Instead, Cognition has stepped in with a deal to acquire the company after OpenAIs $3 billion bid fell apart. And in a surprising twist,

In the high-stakes battle for AI supremacy, Big Tech has found a new weapon: buying a company’s brainpower without buying the company itself, leaving regulators in the dust.

OpenAI’s $3B Windsurf deal falls through as Google DeepMind picks up key talent and tech in a non-exclusive agreement.