OpenAI Reaches Agreement To Buy Startup Windsurf For $3 Billion (reuters.com)
(Tuesday May 06, 2025 @11:22AM (BeauHD)
from the stronger-coding-vibes dept.)
- Reference: 0177340303
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/06/0152211/openai-reaches-agreement-to-buy-startup-windsurf-for-3-billion
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/business/openai-agrees-buy-windsurf-about-3-billion-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-05-06/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters:
> OpenAI has [1]agreed to buy artificial intelligence-assisted coding tool Windsurf for about $3 billion , Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal has not yet closed, the report added. Windsurf, formerly known as Codeium, had recently been in talks with investors including General Catalyst and Kleiner Perkins to raise funding at a $3 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg News.
The report notes that the deal "would be OpenAI's largest acquisition to date," further complementing ChatGPT's coding capabilities.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/openai-agrees-buy-windsurf-about-3-billion-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-05-06/
> OpenAI has [1]agreed to buy artificial intelligence-assisted coding tool Windsurf for about $3 billion , Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal has not yet closed, the report added. Windsurf, formerly known as Codeium, had recently been in talks with investors including General Catalyst and Kleiner Perkins to raise funding at a $3 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg News.
The report notes that the deal "would be OpenAI's largest acquisition to date," further complementing ChatGPT's coding capabilities.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/openai-agrees-buy-windsurf-about-3-billion-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-05-06/
3 F... Billions Dolars? (Score:1)
by hviniciusg ( 1481907 )
Why in the hell is a VScode slaped addon worth so much?
So, is it a profit or non-profit motivated move? (Score:2)
by Fly Swatter ( 30498 )
Inquiring minds are sitting here eating popcorn.
Why did they think it's worth it? (Score:2)
One of the dumbest deals I've ever seen. You could pay me to build something like Windsurf, or many of us could, for less than what they paid.
Re: (Score:1)
That is the case with a lot of unicorn/startup type stuff
The relevant questions are:
Do they have patents?
Are those patents realistically enforceable?
Do they already have so much name recognition and mind share entering the market will be hard?
I could not have told you who Windsurf was, so the company name itself is probably of little value. Codeium I am have least heard of but I don't know much about it until I looked it up again just now.
I am inclined to agree with you here, unless they have some iron cla
Re: (Score:2)
It is a little puzzling. Windsurf is not much more than a fancy VS Code extension, the heavy lifting is done by the backend AI. Originally it was just a code-completion utility but a few months back they started shipping their own custom version of VS Code with the extension embedded. It does work well, they did a good job on it.
With a subscription price of only $15/month I suspect it has been a money-losing operation. Probably they have been subsidized by their AI partners with cheap wholesale tokens. My g