According to The Information, after Cognition, an artificial intelligence coding startup, acquired its competitor Windsurf three weeks ago, it laid off 30 employees last week and offered buyout contracts to the remaining approximately 200 employees, a move that contrasts sharply with its public statement at the time of the acquisition about "bringing in world-class talent."
For Windsurf employees, this is the latest blow in a series of upheavals. The startup's fate has been turbulent: it once came close to being acquired by OpenAI, then its CEO, co-founder, and research director were poached by Google in a so-called "reverse acquisition" deal (where Google hired key personnel without acquiring the entire company), and finally was acquired by Cognition.
At the time of the acquisition, Cognition had publicly stated that all Windsurf employees would receive financial compensation and emphasized that the company was happy to welcome its "world-class talent" to develop top-notch coding tools. However, the latest actions suggest that Cognition's real goal may be Windsurf's intellectual property (IP), not its team itself.
According to an internal email obtained by The Information, Windsurf employees must decide by August 10 whether to accept a buyout offer equivalent to nine months' salary. It is reported that employees who choose to stay will face extremely strict working conditions: working six days a week with total hours exceeding 80 per week.