Indian-origin CEO Varun Mohan, who rejected Rs 25794 crore OpenAI deal for Google's Rs 20633 crore AI investment: Know his educational qualification

Varun Mohan, an Indian-origin engineer has grabbed headlines after signing a whopping USD 2.4 billion (over Rs 20,000 crore) deal with Google, as part of which the tech giant will get a nonexclusive licence to the technologies developed by Varun's AI startup Windsurf. With the deal, Mohan and several other key members of his team join Google's AI research wing DeepMind, marking a high-profile AI talent acquisition. The move has also brought attention to Varun's exception growth trajectory and background. Let us briefly tell you about it.

Which schools did Mohan attend?
Born to Indian-origin parents in Sunnyvale, California state, Mohan attended The Harker School in San Jose city, an institute known for its excellence in science and technology. At the school, Mohan developed a reputation as a math and computing Olympiad geek. He went on to study at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he enrolled in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) programme. By 2017, he had completed both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Engineering in EECS, a tough combination that not many choose to pursue. At MIT, Mohan specialised in operating systems, distributed computing, machine learning, performance engineering, and algorithms. Collaborating with top faculty and research labs, he also gained early exposure to emerging AI models.

What does Windsurf do?
After graduating from MIT, Mohan worked at some of the best global technology companies, such as LinkedIn, Quora, Nuro, Samsung, and Databricks. At these firms, he gained practical experience of backend systems, machine learning infrastructure, robotics, and big data. In 2021, Mohan co-founded Codeium, which was later rebranded as Windsurf, along with his MIT classmate and close friend Douglas Chen. Initially focused on GPU virtualisation, the company's breakthrough came with the idea of an AI tech capable of helping developers write, refactor, and understand code using large language models. Under Mohan’s leadership, Windsurf garnered massive success within a short span of time. The huge nonexclusive deal with Google not only positions Mohan in a key role but also means his firm Windsurf can continue to operate independently, free to license its tools to other clients.