OpenAI's acquisition of Windsurf falls through, CEO joins Google
OpenAI has dropped its $3 billion plan to buy Windsurf, a fast-growing AI coding startup.
Instead, key members of the Windsurf team—including CEO Varun Mohan and co-founder Douglas Chen—are heading over to Google DeepMind's agentic coding group, which works on the Gemini AI project.
Windsurf will stay independent but is giving Google access to some of its tech.
Windsurf's tech powers over a million developers
Windsurf has made waves in the AI coding world, with over a million developers using its platform and contributing a huge chunk of code.
By bringing in Windsurf's talent, Google is boosting Gemini's ability to let AI write and improve code by itself—raising the stakes in its rivalry with OpenAI for next-gen software tools.
Varun Mohan's background
Varun Mohan co-founded Windsurf in 2021 after stints at MIT and self-driving startup Nuro.
He led the shift from GPU infrastructure to building an AI-powered IDE that changed how developers work.