In a major development in the AI talent wars, Google DeepMind has officially welcomed the co-founders of Windsurf, Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen, along with a group of their top engineers, to its team. The move comes just days after reports confirmed that OpenAI’s proposed $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf had fallen through.
Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, shared the update on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday, saying he is “thrilled” to have the team onboard. “Excited to be working with them to turbocharge our Gemini efforts on coding agents, tool use, and much more,” he wrote, referring to DeepMind’s next-generation large language model initiative.
The announcement highlights how Google is reinforcing its focus on agentic coding, a growing frontier in AI where tools can write, manage, and even debug software with minimal human input. According to both Hassabis and Google VP Koray Kavukcuoglu, the incoming Windsurf team will directly support Gemini’s progress in this area.
While Google DeepMind will not be acquiring Windsurf as a company, it has entered into a licensing agreement reportedly worth $2.4 billion, allowing Google to use parts of Windsurf’s technology. Windsurf, which rapidly grew to a $100 million annual revenue run rate earlier this year, will continue operating independently under interim CEO Jeff Wang.
This talent acquisition reflects a broader trend in the AI industry known as a reverse acquihire, where companies avoid regulatory hurdles by hiring key staff and licensing intellectual property instead of pursuing full buyouts. Microsoft and Google have used similar strategies in recent months to secure top-tier AI talent.
The departure of Windsurf’s founders marks a significant shift for the startup, which must now prove it can maintain momentum without its original leadership. Meanwhile, for Google DeepMind, the move signals a strategic push to lead in the race to build the next generation of intelligent coding systems.
