Who is Varun Mohan, the Windsurf CEO Google beat ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to hire? - The Economic Times
OpenAI was in advanced talks to acquire Windsurf, one of the fastest-growing startups in software development workflows, as recently as June, according to reports. Instead, Google has secured a non-exclusive license to certain Windsurf technologies but will not take a stake in the company, sources told Reuters.
But who is Varun Mohan?
Mohan, who has Indian roots, grew up in Sunnyvale, California, to parents who emigrated from India. He attended The Harker School in San Jose before pursuing a BS and MEng in Computer Science at MIT, where he focused on systems and deep learning research.
He began his career working on GPU virtualisation tools and held stints at companies including Nuro, Databricks, Quora, and LinkedIn before cofounding Windsurf (originally known as Codeium) in 2021.
Under Mohan’s leadership, Windsurf quickly gained traction with over a million developers globally. The startup offers a standalone AI-powered integrated development environment (IDE) designed to help engineers move beyond repetitive coding tasks and focus on higher-level problem-solving. Its flagship feature, the “Cascade” agent, automates everything from writing and refactoring code to running commands and generating new features across large codebases.
Unlike most AI coding tools that work as plugins, Windsurf functions as a full IDE, offering greater control and lower latency. The company has emerged as a strong rival to GitHub Copilot and newer players like Cursor by providing granular model customization and making AI coding assistants accessible even to non-technical teams.
Mohan’s broader vision is to push engineers towards more strategic design thinking and away from line-by-line implementation.
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