OpenAI has reportedly purchased AI startup Windsurf for $3 billion after weeks of speculation over a looming acquisition.
In April, reports suggested OpenAI was in talks with the AI coding tool developer on a $3bn deal, which would mark the company’s largest acquisition to date.
Reports from Bloomberg suggest the deal has been agreed but not fully closed, hence the lack of formal announcement or confirmation from either company.
Notably, separate reports suggested OpenAI had previously considered buying a rival coding assistant, having spoken to more than 20 different companies.
Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, reportedly held early discussions with OpenAI on a potential acquisition, but walked away because it would prefer to remain independent.
Cursor gained attention in February after OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy pointed to its potential for "vibe coding", or using AI to write code.
Everything you need to know about Windsurf
Formerly known as Codeium, Windsurf is an AI-powered coding tool. The company's website describes two main tools: Autocomplete, which suggests code as you type, and Search, which helps find anything in a repository using natural language.
"With easy integration into editors, we want you to focus on being the best software developer, not the best code monkey,” the company claims.
Windsurf says the tool is enabled by default for a wide range of languages, and can be enabled for any others.
The tool is currently free for individual developers, though Windsurf charges for additional functionalities as part of its Pro, Teams, and Enterprise paid tiers.
This includes more advanced versions of Autocomplete — called "Supercomplete" and "Fast Autocomplete" — and unlimited usage AI models including OpenAI's own GPT-4o, as well as Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Windsurf claims to have "similar industry-leading latency and quality" on code autocomplete as tools such as GitHub Copilot.
Last year, the company was valued at $500 million following a financing round worth $65 million. The company was founded in Mountain View, California in June 2021 by Douglas Chen and Varun Mohan, the latter of whom currently serves as CEO.
A boon for AI software engineers?
The effort to procure an AI coding company reveals the importance of this area to developers, with coding seen as a genuinely valuable use for generative AI. A survey by GitHub last year suggested the vast majority of coders — a whopping 97% — had used AI coding tools at work, whether their employer knew it or not.
While Meta has said it plans to begin replacing software engineers with AI systems this year, at the same time the world's first AI software engineer was found to not be totally living up to expectations.
OpenAI has been keen to promote its model ranges as a leading option for developers dabbling in AI, but recent events show it’s not quite up to the same level as competitors on this front.
Backlash security testing of seven models for vibe coding skills, for example, found OpenAI's GPT-4o was the worst performer when ranked against other leading industry models, such as Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
OpenAI and Windsurf have yet to respond to a request for confirmation of the deal by IT PRO.
MORE FROM ITPRO
-
More than a third of UK tech leaders admit they’ve cut staff in favor of AI – but now they regret making hasty redundanciesNews UK tech leaders worry they’ve opened themselves up to huge skills gaps with AI-related cuts.
-
This hacker group is posing as IT helpdesk workers to target enterprisesNews The Luna Moth hacker group is ramping up attacks on firms across a range of industries with its 'callback phishing' campaign, according to security researchers.
-
OpenAI wants developers using its new GPT-4.1 models – but how do they compare to Claude and Gemini on coding tasks?News OpenAI says its GPT-4.1 model family offers sizable improvements for coding, but tests show competitors still outperform it in key areas.
-
"OpenAI continues to be our partner on frontier models": Microsoft is open to using a range of AI models in 365 Copilot, but OpenAI remains its go-to choiceNews Citing concerns over performance and cost, Microsoft will look to use a range of models to provide the best experience for Copilot 365 users
-
“There is no one model to rule every scenario”: GitHub will now let developers use AI models from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAINews Devs will be given access to a broader array of AI models on GitHub – but there's more in store for users
-
Open source AI just got a major seal of approval from US regulators — but will it push developers in the right direction?Analysis Regulators in the US appear very keen on supporting open source AI developers
-
Stack Overflow hailed its OpenAI partnership as a boon for developers — but now disgruntled users say they're being banned for deleting postsNews Stack Overflow users have pushed back against a new partnership with OpenAI by altering contributions
-
Microsoft Build 2023: Microsoft Fabric and oodles of Azure AI integrations announcedNews Microsoft Fabric aims to greatly improve developer productivity and simplify real-time analytics
-
Innovation is harder than it looks – we should go easy on tech firmsOpinion From Google’s bungled generative Bard launch to Twitter’s ongoing troubles, we must remember the often-forgotten truth that innovation is slow and software is difficult to build
