In a surprising move, Cognition– the makers of autonomous coding tool Devin— acquired what was left of its rival Windsurf after the company’s cofounders Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen and other staff members were poached by Google DeepMind for $2.

Cognition acquires Windsurf to integrate IDE with AI agent Devin, promoting synergy and innovation in AI-assisted coding.

In a stunning reversal, Google DeepMind acquires Windsurf’s top talent just weeks after OpenAI’s $3B deal collapsed over IP tensions with Microsoft.

In an unexpected turn of events, artificial intelligence startup Cognition announced this week that it is acquiring AI coding startup Windsurf, just days after news that OpenAI’s planned $3 billion buy of Windsurf had fallen apart.

For years, code-editing tools like Cursor, Windsurf, and GitHub’s Copilot have been the standard for AI-powered software development. But as agentic AI grows more powerful and vibe-coding takes off, a subtle shift has changed how AI systems are interacting with software.

As the AI talent wars escalate, Google’s new arrangement with startup Windsurf shows tech companies see a lot of value in coding assistants.

Besides CEO Varun Mohan, several key R&D staff of Windsurf, including co-founder Douglas Chen, have joined Google.