Before its discussions to acquire Windsurf Windsurffor $3 billion, OpenAI reportedly approached Cursor maker Anysphere in an effort to secure its place in the booming AI coding assistant market.

According to CNBC, OpenAI held talks with Anysphere — the startup behind the rapidly growing coding assistant Cursor — twice between 2024 and early 2025. The discussions ultimately fell through, as Anysphere shifted focus toward raising capital at a reported $10 billion valuation, Bloomberg noted last month.

The revelation adds important context to OpenAI’s recent pivot toward Windsurf, a direct competitor in the AI code generation space. Windsurf, which is reportedly generating around $40 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR), has become a strategic acquisition target as OpenAI races to strengthen its dominance in AI development tools.

Anysphere’s Cursor, on the other hand, is believed to have already surpassed $200 million in ARR — making it one of the most successful AI coding tools in the current market.

While OpenAI recently launched its own Codex-powered “CLI agent” to help developers write and edit code, its push for an acquisition suggests the company is unwilling to wait for in-house solutions to fully mature before securing a leading position in the AI coding assistant race.

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