New Delhi: Tech giant Google has made a strategic move to strengthen its AI capabilities by bringing onboard Varun Mohan, an Indian-origin entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Windsurf, a rising startup known for its AI-powered coding tools.

The deal, valued at around $2.4 billion, includes a non-exclusive license to Windsurf’s innovative technology. However, Windsurf will continue to operate independently and retain the right to license its tech elsewhere.

Who is Varun Mohan?

Mohan was born in Sunnyvale, California, to parents of Indian origin. He studied at The Harker School and went on to complete his BS and MEng in Computer Science from MIT, focusing on systems and deep learning.

His professional journey includes stints at LinkedIn, Quora, Databricks and Nuro, where he worked on AI and infrastructure systems.

In 2021, Mohan co-founded Windsurf (earlier called Codeium) with classmate Douglas Chen. Their platform quickly gained traction with over one million developers using its coding agent, Cascade, known for its intuitive “vibe coding” style—an AI-assisted and user-friendly approach to software development.

Why did Google bring in Windsurf?

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, announced the hiring on X, welcoming Mohan, Chen, and several core Windsurf engineers to help accelerate Google's work in Gemini AI, especially in an emerging field called “agentic coding.”

How does this shake up the AI race?

The deal is seen as a major win for Google and a blow to OpenAI, which was reportedly in exclusive talks to acquire Windsurf for nearly $3 billion earlier this year. That exclusivity period has now ended, according to an OpenAI spokesperson.

This move adds to the intensifying AI arms race among tech giants:

Microsoft is developing its own AI-driven coding tools through "agent mode" in Visual Studio Code, and Meta recently hired Alexandr Wang, the founder of Scale AI, to lead its AI strategy as part of a $14.3 billion initiative.

In April, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that 30 per cent of the company's code is now written by AI.

IANS inputs