In a $2.4 billion deal, Google recruited the chief executive and a co-founder of Windsurf, which OpenAI had been in talks to buy, as the battle to dominate artificial intelligence escalates.

Mohan and the Windsurf team will focus on agentic coding initiatives at Google DeepMind, primarily working on the Gemini project. The development comes as tech giants including Alphabet and Meta Platforms aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of AI.