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OpenAI reaches agreement to buy Windsurf for $3B

bloomberg.com

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

#391

Post by __loam »

resters wrote: post #209
noitpmeder wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your take on lawyers is absolutely insane. If you don't think the extremely specialized and well trained professionals can successfully navigate contracts then I can't wait for the absolute garbage the LLMs spit out when faced with similar challenges. Honestly, same for doctors and accountants. Unless these model providers are willing to provide "guarantees" that they will compensate for damages faced as a result of…

While malpractice insurance exists for human docs and lawyers, there is not really any difference between an ai-powered lawyer drawing up a contract, an ai-powered doc reviewing a chart and recommending next steps, and a self-driving car making a turn. The most obviously "lethal" case (cars) is already in large scale rollout worldwide. At scale, self-driving car "errors" will fall under general liability insurance co…

If AI is so good at prose, why haven't I heard about any breakout best sellers?

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

#392

Post by mjirv »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #384
dist-epoch wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

As usual, HN misses the point. The customer list was probably worth about $2.99 billion, and the engineering work about $10 million.

Is OpenAI having trouble acquiring enterprise customers?

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

#393

Post by mplewis »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #384
dist-epoch wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

As usual, HN misses the point. The customer list was probably worth about $2.99 billion, and the engineering work about $10 million.

What makes you think $3B worth of customers were committed to Windsurf at all, much less in a sticky/exclusive way?

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

#394

Post by mvkel »

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…

The value is in the prompts being sent to OpenAI. Massive training depository.

Only thing better would be a social network, which supposedly they're working on.

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

#395

Post by [deleted] »

bfeynman wrote: post #51
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…

talented and smart folks for sure but can't not notice how much luck it is especially because its like 100% just better models. Windsurf raised a ton of money and then said they pivoted which they had millions raised to just do something completely different that likely wouldn't have been easier to raise for. Even in an interview with the cursor founder he kind of dumbly rambles that they launched and then basically…

[deleted]

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

#396

Post by sdwr »

lolinder wrote: post #357
beardedwizard wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But copilot is bundled and is free, and it's still losing to cursor

Define losing? My company pays for Copilot but not for Cursor, and it's not at all clear to me that we're the exception rather than the norm. What numbers and data are you working with?

Copilot has every incumbent advantage, so if Cursor is doing halfway decent in the market (which it is), it's winning by default

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

#398

Post by starfezzy »

beardedwizard wrote: post #349
lolinder wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Looking for a moat in the technology is always a bit of a trap - it’s in the traction, the brand awareness, the user data etc. Traction, brand awareness, and user data do not favor Windsurf over GitHub Copilot. The few of us who follow all the new developments are aware that Windsurf has been roughly leading the pack in terms of capabilities, but do not underestimate the power of being bundled into both VS Code and…

But copilot is bundled and is free, and it's still losing to cursor

In brand velocity maybe, but copilot is rapidly reaching feature parity with cursor and will invariably overtake it—while costing less to users.

Same with Google vs OpenAI. I tend to agree with the sentiment that I most frequently hear which is that OpenAI is the currently popular brand, but that can only carry them so far against what will eventually be a better offering for cheaper.

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

#399

Post by mirekrusin »

n_ary wrote: post #342
mirekrusin wrote: post #242

I don't get it. With $3bn budget you can replicate it in few months, promote for free using your own stronger brand and you're left with roughly $3bn in the bank to do whatever you want.

Your sentiment is very common, which reminds me of those days where everyone claimed to be able to clone twitter/airbnb/dropbox/gmail/whatever over the weekend. The real value lies in a successful execution, Windsurf is live and already has brand popularity with revenue stream. When it gets acquired by a titan, the die hard fans(vibe coders) will gain new trust that the product is not going anywhere and instead has s…

Windsurf is not present in enterprise.

Github copilot, vscode and apis through azure - basically everything through Microsoft - is.

Alternative to Microsoft's monopoly in enterprise that exists is open source.

Comparing this situation to twitter is more like if there was some chat api service, known more than twitter itself, that twitter is using/wrapping where other alternative clients exist, some with stronger popularity, some being open source.

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

#400

Post by retornam »

goodluckchuck wrote: post #380
retornam wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If software engineers are more effective, I would expect there to be more software engineers. They’ll put out more and better code. More code means more engineers. The contrary view is like saying gold miners are finding more gold, and it’s easier than ever, so we expect folks are going to leave town.

If your assertion was true, we would see a hiring boom across the board, instead of mass layoffs and hiring freezes throughout our industry
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