Google hires Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan to boost AI coding push

Google has hired Windsurf co-founder Varun Mohan and key team members in a $2.4 billion IP licensing deal to enhance Gemini’s AI coding capabilities. The move intensifies the AI talent race, marking a strategic win over rival OpenAI.

New Delhi: Tech giant Google has roped in Indian-origin Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of coding AI startup Windsurf, in a major move in the ongoing AI talent race.

In a post on social media platform X, Demis Hassabis, Co-Founder and CEO at Google DeepMind, informed hiring several senior Research and Development team members, along with Mohan.

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“Thrilled to welcome @windsurf_ai founders Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen and some of the brilliant Windsurf eng team to @GoogleDeepMind,” Hassabis said on Saturday.

“Excited to be working with them to turbocharge our Gemini efforts on coding agents, tool use, and much more. Great to have you on board!” he added.

The $2.4 billion licensing and compensation agreement, which was announced on Friday, grants Google a non-exclusive license to important aspects of Windsurf’s intellectual property, but it does not amount to an acquisition or equity investment.

Known for its inventiveness in “vibe coding,” a user-friendly, AI-assisted method of software development that has grown in popularity among developers, Windsurf is a newcomer to the AI coding market.

Windsurf will continue to operate as an independent business and maintain the right to license its technology elsewhere, even in light of the well-publicised talent change.

Several important employees, including co-founder Douglas Chen, will join Google DeepMind as part of the deal.

They are anticipated to support the company’s efforts in “agentic coding,” a new area of artificial intelligence tools that seek to operate more like independent software development collaborators than straightforward code-completion engines.

Although OpenAI had reportedly been in exclusive acquisition talks with Windsurf earlier this year for about $3 billion, the move is seen as a setback for OpenAI and a strategic win for Google.

According to an OpenAI representative, that exclusivity period is now over.

The already fierce rivalry between AI titans is heightened by this development. Microsoft is developing its own AI-driven coding tools through “agent mode” in Visual Studio Code, and Meta recently hired Alexandr Wang, the founder of Scale AI, to lead its AI strategy as part of a $14.3 billion initiative.

In April, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that 30 per cent of the company’s code is now written by AI.

Google is intensifying its efforts to use AI to revolutionise software development with the Windsurf acquisition. It has already drawn top talent from generative AI chatbot service Character.AI and is now seeking to enhance its Gemini platform with features that have the potential to revolutionise the way that coding is done.

Jeff Wang, the interim CEO of Windsurf, stated on X that the company will keep developing its enterprise product while its core team joins Google to spearhead the upcoming wave of innovation in AI-assisted development.