OpenAI pursued Cursor maker before entering into talks to buy Windsurf for $3B

When information broke that OpenAI was in talks to amass AI coding firm Windsurf for $3 billion, one of many first questions on the thoughts of anybody following the house was doubtless: “Why not purchase Cursor creator Anysphere as a substitute?”

In spite of everything, OpenAI Startup Fund has been an investor in Anysphere, the maker of Cursor, for the reason that rapidly rising coding assistant’s seed round in late 2023.  (Anysphere is usually referred to by its product identify, Cursor.) It seems that OpenAI certainly approached Anysphere in 2024 and once more earlier this 12 months a few potential acquisition,  in response to a report from CNBC. The talks failed. As a substitute, Anysphere has been in talks to lift capital at about $10 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported final month.

OpenAI’s want to maneuver on to acquisition discussions with one other coding assistant maker alerts how necessary capturing a slice of the code technology market has develop into for the ChatGPT maker. Windsurf is producing about $40 million in annualized recurring income (ARR), TechCrunch reported in February. In the meantime, Anysphere’s Cursor reportedly makes about $200 million on an ARR foundation.

Whereas OpenAI’s Codex CLI “agent,” which the corporate released Wednesday, may write and edit code, its try to purchase Windsurf suggests the corporate doesn’t need to look forward to CLI to realize traction with clients.