Google Moves Forward on New Hire
Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) on Friday made the latest splash in the AI talent wars, announcing an agreement to bring in Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence coding startup Windsurf.
As part of the deal, Google will also hire other senior Windsurf research and development employees. Google is not investing in Windsurf, but the search giant will take a nonexclusive license to certain Windsurf technology, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Windsurf remains free to license its technology to others.
The person familiar with the deal says Google is paying $2.4 billion in licensing fees and for compensation.
“We’re excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf’s team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email. “We’re excited to continue bringing the benefits of Gemini to software developers everywhere.”
The deal between Google and Windsurf comes after the AI coding startup had been in talks with OpenAI for a $3 billion acquisition deal. OpenAI and Windsurf had entered into exclusivity in order to finalize an acquisition, but the period has reportedly expired.
The move ratchets up the talent war in AI, particularly among prominent companies. Meta (NASDAQ:META) has made lucrative job offers to several employees at OpenAI in recent weeks. Most notably, the Facebook parent added Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead its AI strategy as part of a $14.3 billion investment in his startup.
GOOGL shares acquired 79 cents to $180.98.
