Cognition Acquires Windsurf Team and Tech; Reconnects with Anthropic

Autonomous AI coding company Cognition has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Windsurf, an AI developer tools startup recognized for its agent-based integrated development environment (IDE). Both firms announced the news via their X accounts on Monday. The acquisition price and specific terms remain confidential, as both are privately held companies.

With this acquisition, Cognition gains control of Windsurf's primary product, brand, and the remainder of its team—though not its original CEO or co-founders. As previously reported by The Verge, several key figures from Windsurf have since joined Google as part of a separate $2.4 billion talent and licensing arrangement.

In a joint X video featuring Cognition CEO Scott Wu and interim Windsurf CEO Jeff Wang, the executives outlined initial integration plans. Cognition’s autonomous AI engineer, Devin, will be embedded directly into Windsurf’s IDE as a first step.

The unified experience is intended to help developers organize tasks, assign coding work to AI agents, and evaluate pull requests—all from a single platform.

“This is an ideal match,” commented Wang, previously Windsurf’s head of business. “Partnering with the strongest engineering team in the industry will be transformative for our product and go-to-market efforts.”

In a blog post titled “The Next Chapter,” Wang openly addressed recent internal disruptions: “Last week, our founders and research team departed.”

He commended the remaining team for navigating the transition professionally and stressed that, despite the upheaval, “the core strengths of our company remain firmly in place.”

Wang further shared that Windsurf continues to achieve double-digit quarter-over-quarter enterprise revenue growth and sustains hundreds of thousands of daily active users.

Cognition highlighted that the agreement ensures full financial recognition for Windsurf employees, including waived vesting cliffs and accelerated equity schedules.

In the announcement video, Wang also noted: “And naturally, we’ve mended relationships with Anthropic.” This was a direct nod to an earlier conflict with the AI model provider, which had led Anthropic to withdraw its Claude models from Windsurf's list of supported coding agents and workflows.

However, this renewal follows several chaotic months, marked by failed acquisition discussions, lost AI model access, and major leadership departures.

Divided outcome: Cognition secures product and users, Google brings on founders

On July 11, Google confirmed that it had hired Varun Mohan, Windsurf’s co-founder and CEO, along with other senior R&D staff.

CNBC reported that Google is committing $2.4 billion in compensation and licensing fees as part of the arrangement, which grants a nonexclusive license to certain Windsurf technologies.

The agreement does not involve equity investment in Windsurf or a whole-company acquisition.

“We're thrilled to welcome top AI coding experts from Windsurf’s team to Google DeepMind,” a Google representative told CNBC.

Meanwhile, Windsurf retains the authority to license its technology and will continue independent operations under Wang’s guidance.

This segmented outcome reflects a fractured resolution to earlier reports of a full takeover by OpenAI.

Bloomberg previously reported in May that OpenAI had entered exclusive talks to purchase Windsurf for as much as $3 billion. Those negotiations later dissolved, and OpenAI confirmed to CNBC that the exclusivity window had lapsed.

Although Windsurf never officially acknowledged the OpenAI acquisition, the company displayed clear signs of strain—its communication platforms went quiet, its product suffered reliability issues, and multiple partners reportedly withdrew.

Reunited with Anthropic

One of the most damaging setbacks came in early June, when Anthropic terminated Windsurf’s access to its Claude 3 model series.

In a blog statement, Windsurf confirmed that Anthropic discontinued nearly all first-party API access to Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and associated models, giving less than a week's notice.

In reaction, Windsurf had to shift traffic through third-party inference services and limit access for users on free plans. The company also introduced promotional Gemini Pro pricing as a short-term solution.

At TechCrunch Sessions: AI 2025, Anthropic co-founder Jared Kaplan explained the reasoning, stating the company could not continue supplying its chief rival, OpenAI, with model access through an intermediary.

“It would be unusual for us to sell Claude to OpenAI,” he remarked, citing business competition as well as computational constraints. Kaplan emphasized that Anthropic prioritizes “enduring collaborations,” such as its ongoing partnership with Cursor.

In its response, Windsurf voiced its dissatisfaction and clarified that its platform offers more than just model connectivity. “Windsurf's uniqueness has always extended beyond the AI model,” the company noted, underscoring UX design, enterprise integrations, and automated agent workflows.

A refreshed product vision for the Windsurf-Cognition-Devin merger

Cognition’s acquisition now brings much-needed stability and direction to Windsurf’s future operations. In the deal announcement video, Cognition’s Wu illustrated how the two systems will merge: “Picture planning tasks in Windsurf, launching a group of Devins, and reviewing pull requests without leaving your development environment.”

Devin, capable of independently executing software assignments like bug fixes and app deployments, will now be natively incorporated into Windsurf’s IDE.

The firms state this will let developers delegate repetitive tasks to multiple AI agents simultaneously, while maintaining oversight of critical architectural choices.

Cognition sees this as progress toward building cooperative human-agent ecosystems, and believes Windsurf’s IDE provides the essential interface layer for scaling agent-driven development processes. Both companies are optimistic that users will enjoy a smoother, better-integrated coding workflow.

Windsurf’s blog post also detailed product-level updates, confirming that existing tools such as Tab and Cascade—used for hands-on, high-impact coding—will stay embedded in the IDE.

Developers will have the option to assign tasks to “a group of Devins,” while still intervening to handle or refine particularly complex components. “Everything is seamlessly integrated within the same workspace,” Wang explained.

Market consolidation in a competitive landscape

The merged Cognition-Windsurf organization now competes head-to-head with GitHub Copilot, Replit, Cursor, and other AI-native IDEs. Google’s Gemini platform and Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code with “agent mode” are also advancing quickly in this arena.

Devin drew widespread attention earlier this year for its capacity to autonomously resolve GitHub issues and execute full-cycle coding assignments. Combining this with Windsurf’s flexible environment—including features such as Previews, Reviews, and Enterprise workflows—could yield a product that is less compartmentalized and more automated than competing offerings.

Nonetheless, the persistent competition for skilled personnel means any edge may be temporary. Google’s recruitment of Windsurf’s founding team—including Mohan and co-founder Douglas Chen—indicates that even partial acquisitions now command multibillion-dollar valuations. Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have pursued similar strategies, onboarding key individuals from startups such as Scale AI, Adept, and Inflection.

Despite the leadership changes, Windsurf continues to operate under Wang’s guidance.

“The majority of Windsurf’s outstanding team will keep developing the product to maximize its enterprise value,” he stated.

Wang also pointed out that the team selected Cognition over other potential buyers, drawn not just by technical compatibility but also by respect: “They were the only team that made us nervous.”

He added that Cognition’s revenue is expanding at an even faster rate than Windsurf’s, and its $300 million in funding and $4 billion valuation demonstrate solid financial health.

The company is anticipated to prioritize enterprise functionality, agent-driven IDE features, and hybrid/federated deployments—key characteristics that have helped differentiate it in a competitive market.

For the developer community, the outlook includes both consistency and evolution: A product that continues under Cognition’s wing, a founding team now part of DeepMind, and an industry swiftly converging around model access and engineering expertise.