Cognition Acquires Windsurf to Boost AI Coding Capabilities

Cognition, the company behind the AI coding agent Devin, has acquired AI IDE startup Windsurf, following Google’s high-profile reverse-acquihire of Windsurf’s top executives last week.

The deal includes Windsurf’s product, IP, and all remaining employees. With this move, Cognition strengthens its position in the race to lead the AI developer tools market, gaining a user base of 350+ enterprise clients and hundreds of thousands of daily users.

Windsurf had reached $82 million in ARR prior to the deal and will continue developing its AI IDE before integrating with Cognition’s offerings. The acquisition ensures 100% of Windsurf employees will benefit financially, with vesting cliffs waived.

Cognition’s leadership sees the acquisition as a strategic step to offer both autonomous coding agents and developer-friendly IDEs—positioning the company to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cursor in the fast-evolving space.