Varun Mohan

Varun Mohan is an American entrepreneur and software engineer. He is the co-founder and former chief executive officer of Windsurf.

Early life and education

Mohan was raised in Sunnyvale, California. He studied electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees.

Career

Before co-founding Windsurf, Mohan worked at technology companies including LinkedIn, Quora, Databricks and Nuro. In 2021, Mohan co-founded Codeium with Douglas Chen. The company developed artificial intelligence tools that assist software developers with code generation, completion and related programming tasks. As the company's chief executive officer, Mohan oversaw its product development and business growth. The company later rebranded as Windsurf.

In July 2025, Google announced that Mohan, Chen, and several members of Windsurf's research team would join Google DeepMind. As part of the agreement, Google obtained a non-exclusive licence to certain Windsurf technologies. The announcement followed the collapse of a reported acquisition of Windsurf by OpenAI. Windsurf continued to operate independently under new leadership while Google did not acquire ownership of the company.

References

  1. 1 2 "All About Varun Mohan, The Windsurf CEO Hired By Google To Strengthen Its AI". NDTV. Archived from the original on 2025-09-12. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  2. ↑ Ming, Lee Chong. "This AI CEO wants to keep his startup 'dehydrated,' hiring only when absolutely needed". Business Insider. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  3. ↑ "Who is Varun Mohan? Indian-origin CEO of Windsurf faces backlash after quitting startup for Google, derailing $3B OpenAI deal". The Times of India. 2025-07-24. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  4. ↑ "Who is Varun Mohan, the Windsurf CEO Google beat ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to hire?". The Economic Times. 2025-07-22. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  5. ↑ "Who is Varun Mohan, Windsurf CEO hired by Google to boost Gemini AI project". business-standard.com. Archived from the original on 2026-06-05. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  6. ↑ "Who is Varun Mohan? The Indian-origin CEO who rejected $3 Billion OpenAI deal for Google DeepMind". Moneycontrol. Archived from the original on 2025-07-25. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  7. ↑ "Windsurf | Company Overview & News". Forbes. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  8. ↑ Ming, Lee Chong. "Why this AI CEO wants his startup to cannibalize its own product every 6 to 12 months". Business Insider. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  9. ↑ Zeff, Maxwell (2025-07-11). "Windsurf's CEO goes to Google; OpenAI's acquisition falls apart". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  10. ↑ Novet, Jordan (2025-07-11). "Google hires Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, others in $2.4 billion AI talent deal". CNBC. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  11. ↑ Jain, Sanya (2025-07-21). "Indian-origin CEO slammed for 'abandoning' startup to join Google: 'A generational villain'". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  12. ↑ Field, Hayden (2025-07-11). "OpenAI's Windsurf deal is off — and Windsurf's CEO is going to Google". The Verge. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  13. ↑ KS, Dibeesh (2025-07-02). "How Varun Mohan Turned a $28M Setback Into a $3B Win — And What Every Founder Should Learn From It". Medium. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  14. ↑ "Google hires Windsurf execs in $2.4 billion deal to advance AI coding ambitions". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2025-12-20. Retrieved 2026-08-14.