The Indians have started showing their talent in America. Those whose parents came to America to seek their fortune. They sent their children to the best universities. Now they are making a name for themselves. Among them Varun Mohan is the one who succeed in life in just 28 years. He strikes $2.4 Billion (Rs.20,000 Cr)deal with Google for His AI Startup
Early Life of Varun Mohan
Varun Mohan has been talented since childhood. In this regard, Indian youth who grow up in America have an advantage. If someone is born with talent here, he does not have to waste time preparing for IIT JEE. He can focus on his passion from the very beginning.
The Harker School, San Jose— he got First in Mathematics and Computer Olympiads there. For the first time, everyone realized that he had a fiery talent hidden inside him. Naturally, he got an opportunity at MIT. He started doing a bachelor of science-dual degree in computer science and engineering and math together. In both cases, he was first in his class at MIT. That means the best of the best.
2014–2017 was a great time—he was busy sitting in the lecture halls of MIT, earning two degrees: Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering, with a focus on operating systems, distributed computing, machine learning, performance engineering, and algorithms.
After graduating from MIT, he moved to Silicon Valley, working on GPU virtualization, autonomy systems, and data infrastructure at companies like LinkedIn, Quora, Databricks, Cloudian, and Nuro. He also developed his skills as an engineer.
But Varun Mohan wanted something bigger—a complete AI-powered coding revolution.
In June 2021, he secretly started Codeium with his MIT friend Douglas Chen. One was Indian, the other Chinese. Both were students of Tucson—a huge talent. It later evolved into Windsurf. Later, the two focused on building an AI-agent called “Cascade.” It is a coding environment where one million developers joined in just four months. Software developers fell in love with the platform he created.
And when the market loves the product, money pours in like a flood! Investors poured money into his company in droves. From $3 million seed to $150 million Series-B––$1.25 billion [10,000 crore Rupees] valuation in just two years—a record in almost every respect.
Codeium to Windsurf: The AI Dream
His ‘vibe coding’ concept—where code is written with natural language prompted AI, as if software is born with words—has made coding more creative and easier. He himself says, “Engineers spend more time than just writing code…”—LLM tools have increased productivity by 30–40%, so more “engineers should be hired.”
Rejecting Microsoft, Saying Yes to Freedom
In the summer of 2025, an offer of $3 billion [25,000 crore taka] came from OpenAI—but Varun did not agree. Because giving that OpenAI means selling it to Microsoft. And Microsoft means, they will make a good product of low quality! As a result, Varun sat down despite the offer of 25,000 crores! Money is not everything in his life!!!
Google Steps In: $2.4 Billion Non-Acquisition Deal
Sundar Pichai saw this opportunity. He told Varun – his freedom will remain intact – Google will help him all the way. Varun Mohan has accepted the Google’s $2.4 billion offer, but not as a straightforward acquisition. Instead, the deal is structured as a strategic licensing and talent partnership, granting Google DeepMind non-exclusive rights to Windsurf’s core technologies. Crucially, Windsurf will maintain its independence, retaining the ability to license its innovative tools to other companies throughout the tech sector.
As part of this deal, Varun Mohan, Douglas Chen, and several members of Windsurf’s R&D team have transitioned to Google DeepMind. Their current focus involves developing advanced agentic coding systems and integrating Windsurf’s technology with Google’s Gemini AI platform.
July 11, 2025 – Pichai announced from Google DeepMind – “We’re hiring Varun Mohan, Douglas Chen and the Windsurf R&D team – with a non-exclusive license for the development of Gemini with an investment of $ 2.4 billion” – this is not an acquisition, but rather a talent-technology deal.
Google got Windsurf’s idea for their AI agentic coding future and Windsurf became independent by making Jeff Wang the interim CEO. Varun Mohan got the guarantee of working independently.
Billionaire at the age of 28 — From Middle-Class Roots
Varun’s life is only 28 years old. In the meantime, he is a billionaire. No, his father is an ordinary software worker. The son of a middle-class family.
The Message to Young
Technology has been providing this advantage for the last thirty years in America, for the last ten years in India – you can be born in an ordinary middle-class family. But if you have talent, the possibilities of success are unlimited. Before turning thirty, many second-generation Indian children have made a fortune of more than 1000 crores in the software industry.
Today’s capitalist system is ready to give everything to those who have talent. But today there is no price for that ordinary quality talent. You have to be the best talent.
