Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 604 posts

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#261

Post by supportengineer »

dist-epoch wrote: post #73
bko wrote: post #29

Incredible timeline to a $3B exit > Windsurf began in 2021 as Exafunction, founded by MIT graduates Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen. The company initially focused on GPU optimization before pivoting to AI-assisted coding tools, launching Codeium, which later evolved into Windsurf. > Series B (January 2024): $65 million at a $500 million valuation. > Series C (September 2024): $150 million, led by General Catalyst, at a…

> I wonder how much of the value is really from the model > The other stuff could be more or less a VS Code plugin The other stuff would take a team 6 months to implement. This is where the valuation comes from. Time to market, they are there TODAY.

6 months of anyone's time is not worth 3 billion dollars.

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#262

Post by cheema33 »

tough wrote: post #159
Androider wrote: post #28

Windsurf and Cursor feel like temporary stopgaps, products of a narrow window in time before the landscape shifts again. Microsoft has clearly taken notice. They're already starting to lock down the upstream VSCode codebase, as seen with recent changes to the C/C++ extension [0]. It's not hard to imagine that future features like TypeScript 7.0 might be limited or even withheld from forks entirely. At the same time,…

Github Copilot is pretty much the same UI as cursor on vscode already

UI may be close. Functionality is very very different. Copilot is $10/month. Cursor is $20/month. I canceled my Copilot subscription after 2 months of using both. Compares to competition, Copilot has been garbage for quite some time.

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#263

Post by alasano »

oofbaroomf wrote: post #227
alasano wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't find any reference to Cline/Roo charging anything on top of API pricing. Not sure how they'd do it considering you bring your own API keys. Can you link me to a resource?

GP didn't say Cline/Roo charged anything on top.

The comparison table on the kilo site says "OpenRouter without 5% markup" and only puts a checkbox next to kilo.

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#264

Post by retornam »

goodluckchuck wrote: post #250
retornam wrote: post #240

I'm skeptical about this VSCode fork commanding a $3 billion valuation when it depends on API services it doesn't own. What's their moat here? For comparison, JetBrains generates over $400 million in annual revenue and is valued around $7 billion. They've built proprietary technology and deep expertise in that market over decades. If AI (terminology aside) replaces many professional software engineers and programmers…

If OpenAI just provides AI, then the various IDEs development wrappers / IDEs / low-code etc. can collectively bargain against OpenAI for low rates. If OpenAI has an alternative, then they can charge higher rates for all plugins/ etc. and give the market an alternative.

If enterprises require fewer software engineers, where will the market for IDE development wrappers come from?

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#265

Post by tomjen3 »

D4ckard wrote: post #214

I don't get why people want the AI right in their editor. In another windows inside the editor, fine, but not inline with code I'm writing. It's super distracting to have AI auto complete pop up at random all the time. As always, typing speed, or speed at generating raw code, is not the bottleneck in programming. The crux remains design, in which case having the LLM on the side is just fine (if you use it for that).…

If you have tried the completions in copilot, you are right. They are complete garbage.

Windsurfs on the other hand are much better. The only issue is that windsurf is super aggressive about them, but it is able to do do things like "the user made a change on this line, he most likely also want to make the change here".

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#266

Post by pjmlp »

aero142 wrote: post #190
pjmlp wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, folks keep giving human behaviours to big corporations instead of understanding everyone is in the game for the shareholders.

If a company can align it's business model with user goals, then it can work in the long run. Apple has somewhat aligned it's integrated hardware sales business model with user privacy. Google and Meta are advertising companies and capturing user data and attention will always drive the business.

Apple does ads as well, it just keeps all metadata to themselves.

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#267

Post by forrestthewoods »

silverwind wrote: post #168
leonidasv wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is: we should not need standalone editors just to use AI coding agents. They could be just plugins, but Microsoft does not want to bend the plugin API enough for that. Windsurf has a "plugin edition" for JetBrains IDEs that works really, really well[0] (they also have a VSCode plugin[1] but it's lacking in comparison). However, given that JetBrains also have their own AI offering[2], I'm not sure how long t…

> They could be just plugins No, they should be LSPs so that they can be integrated into any editor, not just VSCode.

LSP is amazing but also kinda sucks balls. It’s impossible to run VSCode without a million pops in the corner with a million extension errors. It’s so bad.

And autocomplete is the least interesting thing an LLM can do. Cursor’s UX isn’t the end game but has lots great features.

The ideal UX is still being worked out. It’s good that different people are building tools to try different ideas.

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#268

Post by rpgbr »

bko wrote: post #29

Incredible timeline to a $3B exit > Windsurf began in 2021 as Exafunction, founded by MIT graduates Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen. The company initially focused on GPU optimization before pivoting to AI-assisted coding tools, launching Codeium, which later evolved into Windsurf. > Series B (January 2024): $65 million at a $500 million valuation. > Series C (September 2024): $150 million, led by General Catalyst, at a…

It's a bubble about to pop. That's where the value is coming from.

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#269

Post by blueboo »

retornam wrote: post #240

I'm skeptical about this VSCode fork commanding a $3 billion valuation when it depends on API services it doesn't own. What's their moat here? For comparison, JetBrains generates over $400 million in annual revenue and is valued around $7 billion. They've built proprietary technology and deep expertise in that market over decades. If AI (terminology aside) replaces many professional software engineers and programmers…

OpenAI needs a product team

hiring is hard

it's a high-functioning team swimming in contemporary design and eng practices

code is emerging as an important battleground

OpenAI has the $$$

Re: OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

#270

Post by macrolime »

iambateman wrote: post #173
leonidasv wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is: we should not need standalone editors just to use AI coding agents. They could be just plugins, but Microsoft does not want to bend the plugin API enough for that. Windsurf has a "plugin edition" for JetBrains IDEs that works really, really well[0] (they also have a VSCode plugin[1] but it's lacking in comparison). However, given that JetBrains also have their own AI offering[2], I'm not sure how long t…

Is windsurf essentially the same as cursor? I didn’t realize there was something similar for JetBrains but if it’s a cursor-equivalent for JB that would be wonderful.

Yes
Post reply on HN