OpenAI Considered Acquiring Cursor Before Turning to Windsurf
Cursor, which runs on Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, gained traction among developers for its intuitive desktop coding interface.
Before entering acquisition talks with AI coding startup Windsurf, OpenAI reportedly explored buying Cursor.
According to CNBC, OpenAI approached Anysphere—the company behind the Cursor AI coding assistant—twice, once in 2023 and again in 2024 as the app surged in popularity. However, both sets of discussions failed to move forward.
Interestingly, OpenAI has participated in Cursor's funding round through its OpenAI Startup Fund. While reporting the OpenAI Windsurf deal, Bloomberg said the deal could undermine the credibility of the OpenAI Startup Fund. However, as it appears, that is not the case.
Cursor, which runs on Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, gained traction among developers for its intuitive desktop coding interface.
In fact, many users began favoring Cursor over Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, especially after GitHub integrated Claude’s model into its assistant in late 2023.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg recently reported that Anysphere is in funding talks at a valuation near $10 billion.
OpenAI, whose own Codex models are powering next-gen tools like the newly announced Codex CLI, is currently in negotiations to acquire Windsurf for around $3 billion—potentially its largest acquisition yet.
