In a $2.4 billion deal, Google recruited the chief executive and a co-founder of Windsurf, which OpenAI had been in talks to buy, as the battle to dominate artificial intelligence escalates.

Windsurf's CEO and several key researchers at the AI coding assistant startup are headed to Google. In a statement to Business Insider, a Google spokesperson confirmed that Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan and others from the startup would be joining its DeepMind team as part of the company's continued investment "in its advanced capabilities for developers.