Startups Category
OpenAI pursued Cursor maker before entering into talks to buy Windsurf for $3B
When news broke that OpenAI was in talks to acquire AI coding companyWindsurf for $3 billion, one of the first questions on the mind of anyone following the space was likely: “Why not buy Cursor creator Anysphere instead?” After all, OpenAI Startup Fund has been an investor in Anysphere, the maker of Cursor, since the quickly growing coding assistant’sseed roundin late 2023. (Anysphere is often referred to by its product name, Cursor.) It turns out that OpenAI indeed approached Anysphere in 2024 and again earlier this year about a potential acquisition, according to areport from CNBC. The talks failed. Instead, Anysphere has been in talks to raise capital at about$10 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported last month. OpenAI’s desire to move on to acquisition discussions with another coding assistant maker signals how important capturing a slice of the code generation market has become for the ChatGPT maker. Windsurf is generating about $40 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR),TechCrunch reportedin February. Meanwhile, Anysphere’s Cursor reportedly makes about $200 million on an ARR basis. While OpenAI’s Codex CLI “agent,” which the companyreleased Wednesday, can also write and edit code, its attempt to buy Windsurf suggests the company doesn’t want to wait for CLI to gain traction with customers.