OpenAI Windsurf Deal: Off

Ouch! The OpenAI Windsurf deal is off, according to reporting from The Verge. This was the rumored acquisition of Windsurf, a company building an AI codegen IDE with agentic features. Not only that, Windsurf’s CEO has left to join Google. Double ouch. 😬

This halts what seemed like a foolish acquisition by OpenAI, who has been making moves to build its own developer tools with Codex. Furthermore, Windsurf is not, in my opinion, the best tool in the “Agentic IDE” space.

As I noted in my AIEWF2025 Day 1 recap, I haven’t been particularly impressed with Windsurf, and their presentation at the conference didn’t change that opinion:

In the AI Coding space, IDE-tool subspace, my most-admired product, and also the one I have the most experience with, is Cursor. In my experience, which combines a lot of paying attention to what others think and a moderate degree of hands-on use, Cursor leads this sub-niche. The AIEWF2025 audience seemed to agree, when someone asked for raised hands for who uses Windsurf, and who uses Cursor. My estimate was about 5:1 Cursor:Windsurf.

It’s possible, no doubt, that I’m missing something important. I strive to remain open-minded. I will give Windsurf major credit for capitalizing on OpenAI’s need to beef up their AI Coding story. If Windsurf can close that $3B deal—that fat lady hasn’t sung quite yet—being part of OpenAI may give Windsurf the unique advantage that its current product capabilities do not.

In the end, the fat lady did not sing for Windsurf.