• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, Today

Google stepped into the AI acquisition race on Friday by agreeing to pay $2.4 billion to license technology from Windsurf, an AI coding startup that OpenAI had previously agreed to acquire --the type of plot movies are made of. Not quite yet. 

Windsurf's CEO and some of its employees also will work with Google in its DeepMind business. The employees will focus on agentic coding.

The move became public on Friday. It was the latest example of how technology companies are hiring AI talent to deepen their core agentic engineering talent pool.

Baird Equity Research Analyst Colin Sebastian called the deal a way for Google to compete more aggressively with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. It also highlights the importance of speed to market.

"By licensing one of the most enterprise-focused and secure agentic coding tools, Google should be able to enhance Gemini-powered tools and coding assistants with Windsurf capabilities," Sebastian wrote. "[Google Cloud Platform}, presumably, hopes to compete more effectively with Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot and Amazon CodeWhisperer. In addition, we assume Google plans to build on Windsurf technology (and the capabilities of its founders) to offer other GenAI and agentic tools to enterprise cloud customers."

Money has been flowing across technology companies. OpenAI recently acquired io, a startup founded by Jony Ive, formerly the chief design officer at Apple. The acquisition, valued at $6.5 billion in an all-stock deal, makes io OpenAI's largest acquisition.  

Apple announced in 2019 that Ive would leave to form an independent design company, but would continue to work with the company. He founded io years later with several former Apple employees, including Evans Hankey, his successor as Apple's top designer, Tang Tan, who led iPhone and Apple Watch design teams, as well as Scott Cannon, who worked on Mac and iPad teams. 

Ive is known for shaping the design of many Apple products such as the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Google negotiated a deal with Windsurf after talks between OpenAI and Microsoft fell through, The Wall Street Journal reported. OpenAI didn’t want to give Microsoft access to Windsurf’s technology, but under their contract, the WSJ reported Microsoft is entitled to all of the startup’s intellectual property.

Large technology companies have started an AI talent war and are not only paying millions for AI startups, but aggressively going after seasoned AI employees.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO at Meta Platforms, formed a Superintelligence Lab and has spend millions to acquire top talent.

Multiple news organizations have reported Meta offered Ruoming Pang, a top engineer at Apple, a $200 million pay package. Pang led Apple's AI models team.

And as the AI and technology wars rage on, Hollywood has taken notice. This time the stars are OpenAI and Sam Altman, rather than Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook like in “The Social Network.”

"Artificial” is a $40 million Amazon MGM Studio-funded production about OpenAI scheduled to debut next year.

Elon Musk's role in the industry has been portrayed, according to Puck's Matt Belloni, who says he has seen the script. Business Insider pointed to the post, suggesting there are many parallels between “Artificial” and “The Social Network,” mostly because the drama lies between the founders and company. It is a comedic drama set in the world of AI.