OpenAI is set to make a major play in the AI coding arena, as it nears a deal to acquire Windsurf—a startup renowned for turning natural language prompts into ready-to-run source code—for about US $3 billion. Bloomberg reports that while an agreement has been reached, the deal is still pending finalisation, with both companies staying mum for now.
Windsurf, which used to be known as Codeium, has long been at the forefront of creating coding tools that feel almost intuitive. Its CEO, Varun Mohan, even stirred a bit of excitement on X with a mysterious post hinting at big news just before the deal broke. Back in its last funding round, led by General Catalyst, the startup was valued at US $1.25 billion. Now, with talks involving investors such as Kleiner Perkins and General Catalyst aiming for a valuation of US $3 billion, Windsurf’s trajectory seems well-aligned with OpenAI’s ambitions.
If this acquisition comes through, it will be OpenAI’s largest yet, outstripping its earlier purchase of Rockset—a database technology provider—for a few hundred million dollars. The race for advanced AI coding tools is intensifying, with established names like Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot leading the pack, while competitors such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and Anysphere’s Cursor—currently valued at US $9 billion—are steadily carving out their niches.
This potential deal follows a landmark US $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank Group, which boosted OpenAI’s valuation to US $300 billion. Even with these big moves, OpenAI remains committed to its non-profit-backed structure, foregoing a shift to a traditional for-profit model.
