Windsurf was on the verge of being one of the biggest AI acquisitions of the year. OpenAI had lined up a $3 billion deal to purchase the startup, giving it a powerful edge in the race for enterprise developer tooling. The valuation was high, the team was top-tier, and the company was scaling fast. But within weeks, everything unraveled. The acquisition fell through, and instead of joining OpenAI, Windsurf’s CEO, cofounder, and core research team were hired by Google DeepMind. Google also secured a nonexclusive license to the company’s core IP. The company itself remained independent, but without the people or momentum.
Why OpenAI Wanted Windsurf in the First Place
Windsurf had built an advanced AI-native integrated development environment based on a customized fork of Visual
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