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Three weeks after acquiring Windsurf, Cognition offers staff the exit door

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Cognition, the AI coding startup that acquired rival company Windsurf
three weeks ago, laid off 30 employees last week and is offering buyouts
to the roughly 200 remaining employees on the team, reports The
Information. 

This is the latest bout of whiplash that Windsurf employees have faced
after a tumultuous stretch for the company. The startup was initially
almost acquired by OpenAI, then lost its CEO, co-founder, and research
leads to Google in a $2.4 billion deal known as a reverse-acquihire
(where Google hired the key talent rather than buying the company),
before ultimately getting acquired by Cognition.  

At the time of the acquisition, Cognition stated that 100% of Windsurf
employees would receive financial compensation as part of the deal and
stressed that the company was excited to bring on Windsurf’s
“world-class people” to develop top-notch coding tools. 

Now, it’s becoming clear that Windsurf’s intellectual property, not its
talent, was the real buy. 

According to an email The Information viewed, employees were given until
August 10 to decide whether they want to take the buyout, which amounts
to nine months of salary. Those who choose to stay are reportedly
required to spend six days at the office and clock more than 80-hour
weeks — draconian conditions that have become table stakes among workers
at top AI firms. 

“We don’t believe in work-life balance—building the future of software
engineering is a mission we all care so deeply about that we couldn’t
possibly separate the two,” wrote Cognition CEO Scott Wu in the email. 

TechCrunch has reached out to Cognition for more details.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/05/three-weeks-after-acquiring-windsurf-co
gnition-offers-staff-the-exit-door/ 

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Three weeks after acquiring Windsurf, Cognition offers staff the exit door Adam Schitt <adam.schitt@dont-email.me> - 2025-08-08 13:05 +0200

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