Accordingly, Google will pay $2.4 billion for the deal, including licensing fees and compensation costs, to recruit CEO Varun Mohan and several other senior employees of Windsurf. Google will not invest in Windsurf but will receive non-exclusive licenses for some of Windsurf's technologies, allowing startups to freely license their technologies to other parties.
A Google DeepMind spokesperson said that some of the top talent from Windsurf's team will participate in promoting the company's work in the field of "agentic coding".
The deal between Google and Windsurf comes after the AI-cingled startup negotiated with OpenAI a $3 billion buyback deal.
The move shows that the battle for talent in the AI field between the "tech kings" is getting fiercer. Meta has previously made bold offers to a number of OpenAI employees in recent weeks. Most notably, Facebook's parent company has appointed Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang as the new super bright team as part of a $14.3 billion investment in his startup.
Douglas Chen, one of the co-founder of Windsurf, will be one of the Google joins.
Windsurf has become more popular this year along with the vibe coding trend (using new generation AI tools for programming). In April 2025, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that AI is contributing up to 30% of the company's code line.
Developers and non-de developers have embraced the concept of vibe coding, helping Windsurf and rivals like Cursor increase their revenue.
This is not the first time Google has recruited selected personnel from a startup. The company did the same with Character.AI in the summer of 2024. Amazon and Microsoft are also attracting AI talent in a similar way, with corresponding Adept and Inflection deals.
