# Douglas Chen

> Douglas Chen is an MIT-trained engineer and co-founder of Exafunction, the company that became Codeium and then Windsurf. He worked on software tools for Meta's VR headsets before building an AI coding business with longtime friend Varun Mohan. After the team launched the Windsurf Editor and reached hundreds of thousands of developers, Chen joined Google DeepMind in July 2025 to work on agentic coding.

- **Role:** Google DeepMind, agentic coding team
- **Organizations:** Google DeepMind, Windsurf, Codeium, Exafunction, Meta
- **Education:** BS in Computer Science and Engineering; minor in Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- **Known for:** Co-founded Exafunction, which became Codeium and Windsurf., Helped build Codeium as an AI coding assistant with more than 700,000 developers reported by August 2024., Helped launch the Windsurf Editor in November 2024.

## Career timeline

- **Before 2021** — Worked at Meta on software tools for VR headsets including Oculus Quest.
- **2021** — Co-founded Exafunction with longtime friend Varun Mohan, initially focused on GPU virtualization.
- **2022** — The company pivoted to AI developer tools under the Codeium name.
- **2024** — Codeium announced a $150 million Series C at a $1.25 billion valuation; Chen said the platform had more than 700,000 developers.
- **2024-11** — The team launched the Windsurf Editor and its Cascade agent.
- **2025-07** — Joined Google DeepMind with Mohan and some Windsurf teammates to work on agentic coding; Cognition acquired the remaining Windsurf business.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Exafunction, which became Codeium and Windsurf.
- Helped build Codeium as an AI coding assistant with more than 700,000 developers reported by August 2024.
- Helped launch the Windsurf Editor in November 2024.
- Joined Google DeepMind's agentic coding effort in July 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — Chen and Mohan joined Google DeepMind with some Windsurf teammates to advance agentic coding; the remaining Windsurf business was acquired by Cognition.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaspchen
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/douglaspchen
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/douglaspchen

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/douglas-chen
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-29