AI coding firm Cognition seeks funding at $25 billion, fueled by SpaceX-Cursor deal momentum

AI Coding Firm Cognition in Funding Talks at $25 Billion Value

Cognition has seen a fresh wave of interest from investors following Elon Musk's SpaceX announcement of an agreement to acquire rival coding company Cursor. Cognition AI Inc. is in early talks to raise a new round of funding that would more than double its valuation to $25 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, tapping into increased demand for companies that understand how to use artificial intelligence in software development. The AI coding startup aims to raise hundreds of millions of dollars or more in financing, according to one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private information. The talks are ongoing, and the terms could change. Earlier this week, Elon Musk's SpaceX announced that it had struck an agreement giving it the right to acquire a rival coding company, Cursor, for $60 billion. While Cognition's funding talks started before that news, it has seen a fresh wave of interest from investors following the deal, the people said. Representatives for Cognition didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. After the Cursor deal was announced, Cognition President Russell Kaplan said in a post on X that the company had heard from more customers and prospective employees. "The more startups in a category that defect from independent competition by selling to a lab, the stronger the remaining ones become," Kaplan said. Founded in 2023, Cognition is part of a crowded market of startups using advances in AI to streamline the process of writing and debugging code. The startup focuses on selling to businesses. Its flagship product is Devin, a tool that it has previously billed as "the world's first AI software engineer," and lists customers such as Anduril Industries Inc. and Microsoft Corp. on its website. Last June, Cognition was bringing in around $73 million in annual recurring revenue, Bloomberg News previously reported. A month later, Cognition acquired the remaining assets, intellectual property, brand and employees of Windsurf, another AI coding company, after Alphabet Inc.'s Google hired Windsurf's co-founders. Shortly after, revenue grew further and Cognition raised $400 million at a $10.2 billion valuation. Cognition's investors include Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures and Avenir. Like other AI coding companies, Cognition faces intense competition from leading model makers such as OpenAI and Anthropic PBC, both of which are vying to sell AI tools to software engineers.

Cognition, creator of the AI software engineer Devin, in talks to raise 'hundreds of millions' at $25B valuation - SiliconANGLE

Cognition, creator of the AI software engineer Devin, in talks to raise 'hundreds of millions' at $25B valuation Artificial intelligence coding assistant startup Cognition AI Inc. is reportedly engaged in discussions with investors over another massive funding round that would more than double its valuation to $25 billion, Bloomberg reported today. The report cites "people familiar with the matter" as saying that Cognition is trying to tap into the growing momentum around AI-generated code that's primarily driven by competitors such as Anthropic PBC and OpenAI Group PBC. Bloomberg did not offer an exact number for the proposed round, but said Cognition is looking to raise "hundreds of millions of dollars or more." No investors were named, and the discussions are still ongoing, meaning that the terms of any deal could still change. Cognition is best known for its AI programming assistant Devin, which burst onto the scene in a big way in March 2024, helping to accelerate the "vibe coding" trend. At the time, the startup claimed Devin was the world's first "fully autonomous AI software engineer," rather than a simple coding tool. It's designed to plan and execute complex engineering tasks by automating the code creation, debugging and even the deployment process. Before Devin carries out any task specified by its users, it will generate a step-by-step blueprint that lays out exactly what it will do to perform the work requested. It also offers a "confidence score" to let users know how likely it is that the code will actually be usable once it's generated. Developers can use these insights to decide if it's worthwhile going ahead with the plan. Cognition says Devin also takes comprehensive steps to minimize the number of bugs that creep into its AI-generated code, and then carefully scans its work afterwards to see if anything slipped through the cracks. It runs multiple tests on all of the code it creates, checking for different kinds of bugs and vulnerabilities. Individual developers can access the standard version of Devin, while large organizations can pay extra to use an enhanced, enterprise-grade version of the autonomous software engineer. This subscription-based offering enables companies to create customized versions of Devin by feeding it with their own data, so it can automate more specialized software engineering tasks. The enterprise version also has additional security features and an audit log. Its customers include technology giants like Dell Technologies Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and many others. Cognition last raised money in September,, when it closed on a $400 million funding round led by Founders Fund with backing from Lux Capital, 8VC, Elad Gil, Definition Capital and Swish Ventures. That round increased its valuation to $10.2 billion, up from $4 billion in March 2025.