OpenAI in talks to pay about $3 billion to acquire AI coding startup Windsurf

OpenAI is in talks to pay about $3 billion to acquire Windsurf, an artificial intelligence tool for coding help, CNBC has confirmed.

Windsurf, formerly known as Codeium, competes with Cursor, another popular AI coding tool, as well as existing AI coding features from companies like Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI itself.

Bloomberg was first to report on the potential deal, which CNBC confirmed with a person familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous since the talks are ongoing.

OpenAI is rushing to stay ahead in the generative AI race, where competitors including Google, Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI are investing heavily and regularly rolling out new products. Late last month, OpenAI closed a $40 billion funding round, the largest on record for a private tech company, at a $300 billion valuation.

OpenAI on Wednesday released its latest AI models, o3 and o4-mini, which it said are capable of “thinking with images,” meaning they can understand and analyze a user’s sketches and diagrams, even if they’re low quality.

Should a deal take place with Windsurf, it would be by far OpenAI’s biggest acquisition. The company has made several smaller deals in the past, including the purchase last June of analytics database provider Rockset and video collaboration platform Multi. In 2023, OpenAI bought Global Illumination, which had been “leveraging AI to build creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences,” according to a blog post when the deal was announced. Terms weren’t disclosed for any of those transactions.

Windsurf is among the tools, alongside Cursor and Replit, that developers have flocked to in recent months to “vibe code,” a term that refers to having AI models quickly assemble code for new software. Andrej Karpathy, a former OpenAI co-founder, coined the term in a post on X in February. Earlier this month Microsoft, whose Visual Studio Code text editor is widely used among programmers, announced an Agent Mode feature with similar capability.

The startup’s investors include Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Greenoaks and Kleiner Perkins. TechCrunch reported in February that Windsurf was raising a funding round at a $2.85 billion valuation.

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.