OpenAI was reportedly in talks to buy Anysphere, the company that produces the Cursor AI coding assistant, before entering into talks with rival company WindSurf.
According to CNBC, OpenAI approached Anysphere in 2024 and again in 2025, but talks stalled both times. Failing to arrive at a deal led OpenAI to look elsewhere for potential acquisitions.
Sources familiar with the deal also say OpenAI is prepared to pay $3 billion to purchase WindSurf, which would make it the company’s largest corporate acquisition to date.
An example of OpenAI’s ChatGPT producing computer code through simple text prompts. Source: ChatGPT
OpenAI’s attempted acquisition of an AI coding assistant company follows the release of DeepSeek R1 in January 2025, which shattered long-held assumptions about artificial intelligence.
DeepSeek was reportedly trained at a fraction of the cost of leading AI models while delivering comparable performance — challenging the belief