Latest news with #VarunMohan
Business Wire
12-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Windsurf Launches First GPU Cluster in Germany, Expanding Secure Enterprise AI in Europe
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Windsurf, a leader in AI-powered software development, today announced its first GPU cluster in Germany, as product demand surges and the company expands performance capacity across the EU. With over 100 local enterprise customers already using Windsurf products, the new cluster marks the company's first major international step in building scalable infrastructure for the European market. Located in Frankfurt, home to some of the world's strictest data security laws, the cluster was a natural choice for Windsurf's first deployment. This cluster was specifically designed to meet the unique security and performance requirements of European enterprises, providing a framework for high performance in even the most complex, secure environments. 'With about 6 million developers across Europe, users deserve infrastructure that meets them where they are,' said Varun Mohan, CEO of Windsurf. 'The demand for secure AI-powered development is undeniable and by launching this GPU cluster, we aim to build on the growing momentum of our current customers and expand Windsurf's presence as the leading AI solution.' Windsurf will also offer data residency within the EU, maintaining that customer code, data processing and retention stay within borders. Together, the goal is to help organizations meet regulatory standards while also reducing latency by more than 50%. 'From telcos to fintechs, we're already supporting some of Europe's most security-conscious enterprises,' said Anshul Ramachandran, Founding Team. 'This marks a key milestone in our global roadmap as we scale trusted infrastructure across the region.' While the team continues to improve feature availability for European customers, local enterprises can already rely on the Windsurf Editor and Windsurf Plugins being both fully functional and compliant for use today. Learn more at About Windsurf: Windsurf is a generative AI-powered software development platform helping engineers move faster, reduce technical debt, and build with greater confidence. With code-native models and flow-aware tools, Windsurf integrates seamlessly into existing workflows to enable higher-quality engineering at scale.
The Verge
07-06-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Popular AI apps get caught in the crosshairs of Anthropic and OpenAI
Battlelines are being drawn between the major AI labs and the popular applications that rely on them. This week, both Anthropic and OpenAI took shots at two leading AI apps: Windsurf, one of the most popular vibe coding tools, and Granola, a buzzy AI app for taking meeting notes. 'With less than five days of notice, Anthropic decided to cut off nearly all of our first-party capacity to all Claude 3.x models,' Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan wrote on X this week, noting that 'we wanted to pay them for the full capacity.' An additional statement on Windsurf's website said: 'We are concerned that Anthropic's conduct will harm many in the industry, not just Windsurf.' Here, Mohan's company is collateral damage in Anthropic's rivalry with OpenAI, which has reportedly been in talks to acquire Windsurf for about $3 billion. The deal hasn't been confirmed, but even the spectre of it happening was enough for Anthropic to cut off one of the most popular apps that it powers. After a spokesperson told TechCrunch's Maxwell Zeff that Anthropic was 'prioritizing capacity for sustainable partnerships,' co-founder Jared Kaplan put it more bluntly. 'We really are just trying to enable our customers who are going to sustainably be working with us in the future,' Kaplan told Zeff. 'I think it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI.'
India Today
06-06-2025
- Business
- India Today
Anthropic co-founder Jared Kaplan says Claude access for Windsurf was cut because of OpenAI
Anthropic co-founder Jared Kaplan has confirmed that Anthropic deliberately cut Windsurf's direct access to its Claude models due to ongoing reports that OpenAI plans to acquire Windsurf. Kaplan's reasoning is that 'it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI' through a third party. In this case, it is response and confirmation comes after Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan publicly slammed Anthropic for cutting off Windsurf's first-party access to Claude 3.x models with less than a week's notice, forcing the popular AI-native IDE (short for Integrated Development Environment) to make last-minute adjustments for its user base. This was not a one-off incident either. Earlier, Anthropic had barred Windsurf users from accessing the new Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 models on day one of was widely speculated that the purported OpenAI acquisition would be a big bone of contention, since logic dictates that Anthropic may not want OpenAI – a competing AI brand – to have any type of open window to its user data which it could then use to train its own ChatGPT models. Kaplan has basically admitted to this conspiracy theory, giving a bit of an insight into Anthropic's core reasoning behind – what some might call – severing ties with a platform used by over a million developers globally. There are two reasons. One is that Anthropic – like any other company – would want to focus on long-term customers, those it can have long-term partnerships with. Secondly, it won't be smart to spend resources – meaning compute – which is limited to clients that may or may not be around in the near did not address the elephant in the room, which is whether it was okay with OpenAI getting access to its data if it ends up buying Windsurf, as per reports. Obviously, he did not make any comment on where the industry would go if this became a common practice, just like he did not say if Windsurf users should expect uninterrupted access to Claude without Anthropic keys anytime CEO Varun Mohan has called it a 'short-term' issue, hinting that discussions are probably on for some middle ground. In the meantime, Windsurf is actively working to bring new capacity online while launching a promotional scheme for Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro, offering it at 0.75x its original price. Also, it has implemented a "bring-your-own-key" (BYOK) system for Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 as well as for the Claude 3.x models, while removing direct access for free users and those on Pro plan trials.'We have been very clear to the Anthropic team that our priority was to keep the Anthropic models as recommended models and have been continuously willing to pay for the capacity,' Mohan said in a blog post, adding that 'We are concerned that Anthropic's conduct will harm many in the industry, not just Windsurf.'
Forbes
05-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Anthropic Cuts Windsurf's Claude Access Before OpenAI Acquisition
CHONGQING, CHINA - DECEMBER 29: In this photo illustration, a person holds a smartphone displaying ... More the logo of 'Claude,' an AI language model by Anthropic, with the company's logo visible in the background, illustrating the rapid development and adoption of generative AI technologies, on December 29, 2024 in Chongqing, China. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a cornerstone of China's strategic ambitions, with the government aiming to establish the country as a global leader in AI by 2030. (Photo illustration by) Anthropic has abruptly terminated Windsurf's direct access to Claude 3.x models with less than five days' notice, according to an announcement from Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan on Tuesday. The decision comes as OpenAI reportedly moves to acquire the AI coding platform for $3 billion. Mohan announced the restriction on X (formerly Twitter), stating that Anthropic "decided to cut off nearly all of our first-party capacity to all Claude 3.x models" despite Windsurf's willingness to pay for full capacity. "We have been very clear to Anthropic that this is not our desire - we wanted to pay them for the full capacity," Mohan wrote. "We are disappointed by this decision and short notice." The restriction has caused temporary availability issues for Windsurf users, though the company says Windsurf users can access Claude via bring-your-own-key. Bloomberg reported on May 6 that OpenAI agreed to buy Windsurf for approximately $3 billion, marking what would be OpenAI's largest acquisition to date. The deal has not yet closed. Industry observers suggest Anthropic's timing is strategic, aimed at preventing a competitor from accessing Claude's capabilities to enhance OpenAI's models. Other AI coding platforms maintain their Claude access, highlighting the targeted nature of the restriction. To mitigate the impact from Anthropic's models, Windsurf has promoted alternative models including Gemini 2.5 Pro at a reduced 0.75x rate. The platform's GPT-4.1 and other model integrations remain unaffected.
The Hindu
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Windsurf CEO reveals that Anthropic is restricting access to Claude AI models
AI coding startup Windsurf has said that Anthropic has removed almost all access to their Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI models. CEO Varun Mohan said that Anthropic's decision to block first-party access was done with 'less than five days of notice,' in a post on X. 'Given the short notice, we may see some short-term Claude 3.x model availability issues as we have very quickly ramped up capacity on other inference providers, but we believe we have now secured sufficient near term capacity,' he went on. Last month, post the launch of Anthropic's latest Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 models, Mr. Mohan wrote in another post on X that the AI firm hadn't given direct access to them. He added that Windsurf has been 'very clear to Anthropic that this is not our desire,' and that they want to pay them for the 'full capacity,' but the short notice and the eventual decision by Anthropic was 'disappointing.' However, he said that they had worked to make Windsurf work much better with Gemini 2.5 Pro as an alternative. 'Gemini 2.5 Pro (now very high quality on Windsurf, new 0.75x promo rate), GPT 4.1, and more are all unaffected,' he stated in the same post. It was reported in April that Anthropic rival, OpenAI was in talks with Windsurf to acquire them as the AI vibe coding segment heat up.
