- In The Loop AI
- Posts
- OpenAI buys windsurf for $3 billion
In partnership with
In Today’s Issue:
OpenAI buys windsurf for $3 billion
Cursor hits a $9 billion valuation
Read time: 3 minutes
OpenAI buys windsurf for $3 billion
OpenAI has reached a deal to acquire Windsurf, an AI-powered coding assistant formerly known as Codeium, for approximately $3 billion, people familiar with the matter said. It’s the largest acquisition in the ChatGPT maker’s history.
The agreement comes amid intensifying competition for market share in AI-assisted programming, where tools like Windsurf generate code from natural language prompts. The deal has not yet closed. Windsurf, officially Exafunction Inc., had recently been in talks with investors, including Kleiner Perkins and General Catalyst to raise at a $3 billion valuation. The company last raised at a $1.25 billion valuation in 2024.
By acquiring Windsurf, OpenAI could strengthen its position against Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot and rivals like Anthropic and Anysphere, the latter recently valued at $9 billion after raising $900 million for its tool, Cursor.
OpenAI itself just completed a $40 billion raise led by SoftBank, bringing its valuation to $300 billion. The company also said this week it was abandoning plans to restructure as a traditional for-profit entity after public backlash.
Windsurf and OpenAI
Which code-editor is your preferred tool? |
Start learning AI in 2025
Everyone talks about AI, but no one has the time to learn it. So, we found the easiest way to learn AI in as little time as possible: The Rundown AI.
It's a free AI newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on the latest AI news, and teaches you how to apply it in just 5 minutes a day.
Plus, complete the quiz after signing up and they’ll recommend the best AI tools, guides, and courses – tailored to your needs.
Cursor hits a $9 billion valuation
Founders of Cursor
Anysphere, maker of the AI-powered programming app Cursor, has raised $900 million in fresh funding at a $9 billion valuation, tripling its worth since January. Thrive Capital led the San Francisco company’s latest round, joined by Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, according to people with knowledge of the deal. It follows a $105 million raise earlier this year that valued the company at $2.5 billion. The leap comes as Cursor’s annual recurring revenue hit $200 million in April, placing it among the fastest-growing software companies ever.
Founded in 2022 by MIT grads, Anysphere’s Cursor has become a favorite among developers for its “vibe coding” approach, using natural language to generate and refine code. The tool now writes close to 1 billion lines of functioning code per day.
Cursor competes with GitHub Copilot and newer entrants like Windsurf and Poolside, but has gained traction with users at OpenAI, Stripe, and Spotify, as well as AI figures like Andrej Karpathy. Investors continue to back application-layer AI companies as the foundation model space becomes prohibitively expensive. AI app startups raised $8.2 billion in 2024, more than double the year prior, per Dealroom and Flashpoint.
How was today's newsletter? |
Reply