San Francisco’s AI startup Cognition has officially acquired Windsurf, gaining its IP, product lineup, brand, and remaining engineering team, including an $82 million ARR and over 350 enterprise clients. The acquisition comes hot on the heels of Google’s $2.4 billion “reverse acquihire” of Windsurf’s CEO and key executives—and after a collapsed $3 billion acquisition by OpenAI
🔍 4 Strategic Gains from the Deal
1️⃣ Talent and IP Salvage
While Google took Windsurf’s leadership, Cognition snapped up the core IP, engineering-and-product talent, and enterprise licensing rights—ensuring continuity of its 250-person team
2️⃣ Boosting Devin’s Capabilities
Windsurf’s agentic IDE tools will be folded into Cognition’s flagship coding assistant, Devin—enhancing features like code planning, debugging, and parallel task handling within the IDE
3️⃣ Fast-track ARR growth
The acquisition brings $82 million in annual recurring revenue, with enterprise ARR doubling quarter-over-quarter—providing Cognition with immediate scale
4️⃣ Cultural and morale boost
Cognition has removed vesting cliffs and fast-tracked equity vesting for all Windsurf employees—addressing concerns from Google’s reverse-acquihire—signaling strong retention values
🔭 What Lies Ahead
- Tech integration roadmap: Windsurf will continue to operate independently short-term, with full integration into Devin planned over the coming months
- Market positioning: Cognition’s acquisition positions it as a stronger player in the competitive AI coding tools market, countering rivals like Cursor, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft TechCrunch
- Enterprise adoption: With over 350 client organizations already using Windsurf, Cognition may press ahead to cross-sell combined Devin+IDE solutions.
✅ Bottom Line
Cognition’s acquisition of Windsurf—including its product suite, talent, and $82M ARR—is a smart counterpunch after Google’s team grab and a failed OpenAI deal. By blending Windsurf’s IDE strengths into Devin and securing top engineering talent, Cognition fortifies its leadership in autonomous coding—setting a new standard in the AI developer tools race.
