Just three weeks after acquiring rival AI coding startup Windsurf, Cognition has laid off 30 employees and is offering voluntary buyouts to the roughly 200 remaining staff, according to The Information.
This move marks yet another jarring shift for Windsurf employees, who’ve endured a turbulent ride. Windsurf was nearly acquired by OpenAI, then saw its CEO, co-founder, and lead researchers depart for Google in a $2.4 billion reverse-acquihire, a deal where Google poached talent instead of buying the company. The rest of the team was eventually picked up by Cognition.
At the time of the acquisition, Cognition praised Windsurf’s “world-class people” and pledged that 100% of staff would receive financial compensation. But now, it appears that the real value Cognition sought wasn’t the people, it was the product.
An internal email viewed by The Information reveals that employees have until August 10 to accept a buyout package equivalent to nine months of salary. For those who stay, expectations are steep: six days a week in-office, and more than 80 hours per week, echoing the brutal work culture reportedly common among elite AI firms.
Related: Tim Cook to Apple Staff: “We Must Win in AI
Cognition CEO Scott Wu defended the demands, writing:
“We don’t believe in work-life balance, building the future of software engineering is a mission we all care so deeply about that we couldn’t possibly separate the two.”
While the company has yet to issue a public statement on the layoffs, the situation underscores a harsh reality in today’s AI boom: even “acqui-hires” can turn into “acqui-fires” when intellectual property, not people, is the priority.
