[bartimus]

They didn't even buy an IDE since windsurf is more like a VS code plugin.

So what was it exactly that was worth the 3B that they couldn't replicate themselves? Their prompts? Their training sets? Their users or user data?

[patapong]

Maybe time? OpenAI has access to basically infinite capital right now, if they believe this will be an importnat market and they could save a few months on launching this acquisition may be worth it for them.

[thomasfromcdnjs]

I'd guess the prompts and employees.

I've found Windsurf more reliable/efficient than any other editors by leagues. How ever they have named the tools, crafted their prompts and generally how their internals reason is just on the money. I don't think that is easy to replicate, iterating on prompts over product releases whilst not pissing off your user base constantly is a feat in of itself.

[bartimus]

Then perhaps it's about bringing in the human talent that wrote those prompts.

[XCSme]

To be honest, Windsurf doesn't work like half of the time, so it's more likely their users, the data, and their branding/marketing potential.

[TiredOfLife]

Windsurf/Codeium plugin is at least 3 years old.