Windsurf founders slammed by Vinod Khosla for abandoning team amid AI startup turmoil

The fallout sparked strong criticism from Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla, who, in a post on X, condemned Windsurf’s co-founders for abandoning their team and vowed never to work with them again

The fast-rising AI startup Windsurf has found itself at the centre of industry drama after a high-profile acquisition deal collapsed, triggering a series of abrupt leadership changes and public criticism from veteran venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.

Co-founders Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen were reportedly close to finalizing a $3 billion acquisition deal with OpenAI. However, the deal unexpectedly fell apart, and both founders soon after departed the company to join Google DeepMind. The sudden exit left Windsurf’s leadership team scrambling to stabilize operations.

Jeff Wang, the company’s former head of business who has since taken over as CEO, revealed that a quick turnaround deal was struck with another AI startup, Cognition, over the following weekend—a process he described as “crazy.”

The fallout drew sharp criticism from Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, who was an early backer of OpenAI and also an investor in Cognition. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Khosla condemned the founders' exit. “Windsurf and others are really bad examples of founders leaving their teams behind and not even sharing the proceeds,” he wrote. “I definitely would not work with their founders next time.”

Startup values under scrutiny

Khosla’s comments were prompted by a podcast clip in which Cognition’s founder, Scott Wu, reflected on changing values among tech founders. “There’s an unspoken covenant that as a founder, you go down with the ship,” Wu said, adding that this ethos appears to be fading.

When challenged online about whether his stance was hypocritical, Khosla doubled down. “Absolutely not hypocritical about it. I would not work with the WeWork founder either! Working without trust is a sure way to be unhappy,” he responded.

He further reflected on whether he would keep the proceeds if in the same situation, noting, “I feel I’d definitely fight for those left behind.”

Neither Mohan, Chen, nor Khosla responded to media requests for comment. Meanwhile, new CEO Jeff Wang shared on X how he had to break the news to staff that not only had the OpenAI deal collapsed, but their co-founders had also exited.

The incident has sparked wider debate about founder responsibility and transparency in the high-stakes world of AI startups.