April 17 (Bloomberg) -- People familiar with the matter said thatOpenAI The company is in the process of acquiring the shares for approximately $3 billion (note: the current exchange rate is approximately RMB 21,967 million).Acquisition Windsurf(An AI-assistedProgramming Tools(formerly known as Codeium) to negotiate.
If the acquisition goes through, it will be OpenAI's largest acquisition ever and will help it become more competitive in the increasingly competitive market for AI-powered programming assistants. Such programming assistant systems are capable of writing code based on natural language prompts.
The person familiar with the matter said the terms of the acquisition have not yet been finalized, and negotiations could still change or even break down. Neither OpenAI nor Windsurf has commented on the rumored acquisition, which was made possible by a request for anonymity due to commercial confidentiality.
Windsurf, formally known as Exafunction Inc., had previously been in talks with investors including Kleiner Perkins and General Catalyst to raise capital at a $3 billion valuation. The company was valued at $1.25 billion in a funding round led by General Catalyst last year. Since its founding in 2021, Windsurf has raised more than $200 million in venture capital funding, according to PitchBook, with other investors including Greenoaks Capital Partners and AIX Ventures.
If the acquisition is finalized, OpenAI will compete more directly with the likes of Anthropic, Microsoft's GitHub, and Anysphere in the AI programming space. All of these companies are important players in the fast-growing AI programming services space. The acquisition also suggests that merger and acquisition activity in the industry could increase significantly as more companies flock to the space.
Previously, OpenAI has acquired other startups, such as vector database company Rockset and remote collaboration platform Multi, and more recently, there's been a surge in investor interest in AI programming tools, such as Anysphere's Cursor, which earlier this year was in talks with investors to raise capital at a valuation of nearly $10 billion.
Last month, OpenAI closed a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank Group, which valued OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT, at $300 billion.