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 area was seemingly: “Why not purchase Cursor creator Anysphere as a substitute?”
In any case, OpenAI Startup Fund has been an investor in Anysphere, the maker of Cursor, because the shortly rising coding assistant’s seed spherical in late 2023. (Anysphere is commonly referred to by its product identify, Cursor.) It seems that OpenAI certainly approached Anysphere in 2024 and once more earlier this yr a couple of potential acquisition, in keeping with a report from CNBC. The talks failed. As an alternative, Anysphere has been in talks to boost capital at about $10 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported final month.
OpenAI’s need to maneuver on to acquisition discussions with one other coding assistant maker alerts how vital 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 launched Wednesday, also can write and edit code, its try to purchase Windsurf suggests the corporate doesn’t wish to anticipate CLI to achieve traction with prospects.
