Overview

• OpenAI officially called off its planned $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf after its exclusivity period expired without resolving intellectual-property access issues.
• Varun Mohan, Douglas Chen and select R&D staff joined Google DeepMind to work on agentic coding initiatives tied to the Gemini project.
• Google agreed to a $2.4 billion non-exclusive license for Windsurf’s AI coding technology without taking any equity or control of the company.
• Windsurf named Jeff Wang interim CEO and Graham Moreno president while most of its 250 employees remain to support enterprise customers.
• The reverse acquihire and licensing structure reflects a growing industry tactic for securing AI talent and innovation without full acquisitions.