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

OpenAI’s $3B bid to acquire Windsurf collapsed after talks stalled, clearing the path for Google to license its AI coding tools and hire key team members.

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 is acquiring Windsurf days after Google DeepMind hired its CEO and research leaders, and months after OpenAI offered to buy it.

Cognition acquires AI coding startup Windsurf, gaining its IP, talent, and user base, strengthening its position to compete with OpenAI, Cursor, and Anthropic.

Google hired Windsurf’s core team and licensed its AI tech for $2.4B to support agentic coding in DeepMind’s Gemini project.

OpenAI faces an existential crisis as strategic blunders, a talent exodus to rivals like Meta, and the collapsed $3B Windsurf deal reveal deep internal turmoil.