Mon. 07/14 – Google Snatches Windsurf From OpenAI
Tech Brew Ride Home
Amalgamated Internets, LLC
4.7 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
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Summary
Google snatched the Windsurf acquisition out from under OpenAI in a big new acquihire. SpaceX is investing in xAI. ChromeOS and Android to merge, but for real this time? Was there a new sort of DeepSeek moment over the weekend? And example number 74 of how YouTube is now the king of video entertainment.
Links:
- Google to Pay $2.4 Billion for Windsurf Staff, IP After Startup Ends OpenAI Talks (The Information)
- Google Is Said to Pay $2.4 Billion for Windsurf Assets, Talent (Bloomberg)
- An OpenAI Acquisition Turns Into a Google 'Hackqusition'... (Spyglass)
- Elon Musk’s xAI seeks up to $200bn valuation in next fundraising (Financial Times)
- SpaceX to Invest $2 Billion Into Elon Musk’s xAI (WSJ)
- Google exec: ‘We’re going to be combining ChromeOS and Android’ (The Verge)
- 'I think you see the future first on Android' – Google's Android leader Sameer Samat (TechRadar)
- Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2 outperforms GPT-4 in key benchmarks — and it’s free (VentureBeat)
- Eight Things We’ve Learned About Hollywood This Year (Bloomberg)
- The Streaming Wars Come Down to 2: YouTube vs. Netflix (NYTimes)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Tech Meme right home for Monday, July 14th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Google Snatch, the windsurf acquisition out from under OpenAI, and a big new aqua hire. |
| 0:14.0 | SpaceX is investing in XAI, ChromeOS and Android to merge. But for real this time? Was there a new sort of deep-seek moment over the weekend, |
| 0:22.1 | and example number 74 of how YouTube is now the king of video entertainment. |
| 0:26.5 | Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. |
| 0:32.7 | To borrow from the football chant, it's happened again, it's happened again. Another big AI acu-hire. |
| 0:41.2 | Remember how OpenAI was going to acquire the AI coding startup WinSurf? Well, over the weekend, |
| 0:47.8 | first, the exclusivity period on OpenAI's $3 billion offer to acquire windsurf expired, and within hours, Google swooped in |
| 0:57.6 | and hired WinSurf CEO Veran Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and some of WinSurf's R&D employees |
| 1:04.2 | to focus on agentic coding efforts at Google-owned Deep Mind. Now, the information was reporting that OpenAI and WinSurf talks ended after WinSurf raised |
| 1:14.5 | concerns over how its tech would fit into OpenAI's agreement to share tech with Microsoft. |
| 1:20.6 | More on that in a second. |
| 1:21.7 | Quote, Google is paying $2.4 billion for a non-exclusive licensing fee that will pay for windsurf's technology and |
| 1:29.0 | multiple years of compensation for windsurf staff coming to the company, according to a person |
| 1:33.6 | with direct knowledge. It will not take a stake in the company, Google said. The deal will |
| 1:38.8 | generate a return for at least some of the startup's investors, according to a person familiar |
| 1:42.8 | with the deal. Employees with vested shares will receive cash, but those without vested equity, many of whom |
| 1:49.1 | joined in the past year, will not receive a payout according to a person who spoke to leadership |
| 1:53.8 | at windsurf. Meta Platforms also held talks with WinSurf about a deal or acquisition, |
| 2:00.0 | according to a person familiar |
| 2:01.1 | with the matter. Other large tech companies have paid huge sums of money as part of similar |
| 2:05.4 | transactions in which they hire much sought after AI talent without outright acquiring |
| 2:10.0 | their companies. Last month, Meta invested $14.3 billion in scale AI while also hiring the |
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