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, according to reports. This marks the latest disruption for Windsurf employees after a turbulent period for the company.
The startup was initially close to being acquired by OpenAI before losing its CEO, co-founder, and research leads to Google in a $2.4 billion reverse-acquihire deal, where Google hired key talent instead of buying the company. Windsurf was ultimately acquired by Cognition, which at the time promised full financial compensation for all Windsurf employees and emphasized its excitement to integrate the company’s “world-class people” into its mission of developing advanced coding tools.
However, recent developments suggest that Cognition’s primary interest was Windsurf’s intellectual property rather than its workforce. Employees have until August 10 to decide whether to accept the buyout offer, which includes nine months of salary. Those who stay will reportedly face demanding conditions, including six-day office weeks and 80-plus-hour work schedules—a trend seen among workers at leading AI firms.
In an email viewed by reporters, Cognition CEO Scott Wu stated, “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.”
TechCrunch has reached out to Cognition for further details.