In a significant move highlighting the escalating battle for top AI talent, Google announced Friday that it has hired Varun Mohan, the co-founder and CEO of AI coding startup Windsurf.
As part of the agreement, Google will also onboard other senior research and development personnel from Windsurf. The deal is not an acquisition; instead, Google is paying a reported $2.4 billion in compensation and fees for a nonexclusive license to some of Windsurf’s technology, according to a source familiar with the matter. This arrangement allows Windsurf to remain independent and license its technology to other companies.
“We’re excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf’s team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding,” a Google spokesperson stated. “We’re excited to continue bringing the benefits of Gemini to software developers everywhere.”
The deal underscores the intense competition between major tech firms, particularly as Windsurf had previously been in advanced acquisition talks with OpenAI for a reported $3 billion. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that the exclusivity period for that potential deal had expired.
This latest development is part of a broader industry trend where tech giants are aggressively acquiring talent through high-value deals. Meta recently made lucrative offers to several OpenAI employees and brought on Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead its AI strategy as part of a $14.3 billion investment. Similarly, Microsoft and Amazon have absorbed key personnel from AI startups Inflection and Adept, respectively.
Windsurf will continue its operations under new interim CEO Jeff Wang, who previously served as the company’s head of business. He confirmed in a post on X that Windsurf co-founder Douglas Chen will also be among those joining Google. “Most of Windsurf’s world-class team will continue to build the Windsurf product with the goal of maximizing its impact in the enterprise,” Wang wrote.
The startup has gained popularity for its tools that facilitate “vibe coding,” an approach where developers use advanced AI to write and refine code. This trend has fueled growth and investor interest in Windsurf and its competitors. This is not the first time Google has used this strategy, having previously hired key engineers from the startup Character.AI in a similar partnership last year.
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