Varun Mohan

Google made the latest splash in the AI talent wars in July 2025, announcing an agreement to bring in Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence coding startup Windsurf. As part of the deal, Google will also hire other senior Windsurf research and development employees. Google is not investing in Windsurf, but the search giant will take a nonexclusive license to certain Windsurf technology, according to a person familiar with the matter. Windsurf remains free to license its technology to others. The person familiar with the deal says Google is paying $2.4 billion in licensing fees and for compensation.Douglas Chen, another Windsurf co-founder, will be among those joining Google in the deal. Varun Mohan was born and raised in Sunnyvale, California, to Indian Immigrant parents. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) he completed a Bachelor of Science and a Master of in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). In 2021, Mohan co-founded Codeium, which was later rebranded Windsurf, along with MIT classmate Douglas Chen.