OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google • Hacker News Board

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#41

Post by ipsum2 » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:11 PM UTC

metadat wrote: post #21

It's another Character.ai situation [0]. Unfortunate for any employees who aren't founders or researchers, as they don't get any payout or a nice new job from this exit structure. In fact they lose their whole time invested at the company. What a harsh time to work for an AI startup as a rank and file employee! I wonder how the founders justify going along with it inside their mind. [0] Character.ai CEO Noam Shazeer…

Not really true, I believe the "acquiring" (i.e. Google) company buys some equity from the employees (windsurf).

Edit: the people downvoting this clearly can't read, I made the exact same point as jonny_eh.

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#42

Post by xyst » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:14 PM UTC

C-level executives get paid. Labor gets stuck grinding at Google. What a waste. Google will probably shelve/hoard the IP from Windsurf.

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#43

Post by bhl » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:15 PM UTC

I don't know anyone who heard or used Windsurf outside the Bay Area. Even Cursor feels very Bay Area bubbly (although that is the market to go after if you're in ai dev tools).

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#44

Post by khazhoux » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:15 PM UTC

Ancalagon wrote: post #3

So Google, Meta, and Microsoft will just hollow out the best AI startups of their talent instead of buying them - out of fear of monopoly lawsuits I'm assuming? Nice plan I guess. Kind of obvious to spot though.

“Buying the startup” just means handing over megabucks to do-nothing investors. If Google isn’t buying any product or technology, why should investors get a talent fee?

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#45

Post by sunaookami » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:15 PM UTC

asdev wrote: post #30

I never knew anyone who used Windsurf. These AI acquisitions have been unbelievable(in a bad way). WIX acquired some garbage Lovable.dev clone for 80 million. I think many of us are waiting for this bubble to pop(economy will likely pop too)

It was barely better than Cursor and they got shafted by Anthropic because of the takeover announcement so nobody really used it anymore because let's face it - Claude Sonnet is just the best coding model. Design-wise the chat panel and autocomplete integration was a bit nicer than in Cursor but not by much. Subscription for Windsurf was/is also 5$ cheaper.

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#46

Post by DiscourseFan » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:15 PM UTC

wagwang wrote: post #10

All of this game of thrones is going to create an amazing documentary if AI capabilities taper off and valuations vaporize.

Obviously these things are difficult to tell from the outside

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#47

Post by xyst » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:15 PM UTC

wagwang wrote: post #10

All of this game of thrones is going to create an amazing documentary if AI capabilities taper off and valuations vaporize.

Apparently somebody missed crypto mania between 2019-2022

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#48

Post by bix6 » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:17 PM UTC

takklz wrote: post #39

metadat wrote: post #21

It's another Character.ai situation [0]. Unfortunate for any employees who aren't founders or researchers, as they don't get any payout or a nice new job from this exit structure. In fact they lose their whole time invested at the company. What a harsh time to work for an AI startup as a rank and file employee! I wonder how the founders justify going along with it inside their mind. [0] Character.ai CEO Noam Shazeer…

The rank and file equity pitch is quickly falling apart…

Always has been

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#49

Post by DiscourseFan » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:17 PM UTC

Ancalagon wrote: post #3

So Google, Meta, and Microsoft will just hollow out the best AI startups of their talent instead of buying them - out of fear of monopoly lawsuits I'm assuming? Nice plan I guess. Kind of obvious to spot though.

There are many AI startups and we are just in the beginning of learning how to use them. There will be some stupid company like those you’ve listed that figures out a way to use AI that is far better than any other implementation, and Google, Meta, and Microsoft may go the way of Yahoo and AOL, but we’ll see

Re: OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off, and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google

#50

Post by layer8 » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:17 PM UTC

According to The Information, Microsoft gaining access to Windsurf’s IP if OpenAI acquired them was a factor: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-windsurf-brea... (paywalled)