Cognition AI
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Artificial intelligence |
| Founded | August 2023 |
| Founder | Scott Wu, Steven Hao, Walden Yan |
| Headquarters | San Francisco , United States |
Key people | Scott Wu, Steven Hao, Walden Yan, Gennady Korotkevich, Andrew He, Neal Wu |
| Products | Devin AI |
Number of employees | 10 (2024) |
| Website | cognition |
Cognition AI, Inc., also recognized as Cognition Labs and operating under the trade name Cognition, is a privately held artificial intelligence enterprise headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company is the creator of Devin AI, an AI-driven software development platform.
The organization is distinguished by its recruitment of elite competitive programmers such as Gennady Korotkevich and Andrew He.
Background
Established in August 2023 by Scott Wu, Steven Hao, and Walden Yan—all recipients of gold medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI)—Cognition originally concentrated on cryptocurrency ventures before shifting its focus to artificial intelligence in response to the ChatGPT phenomenon within Silicon Valley.
In March 2024, Cognition unveiled a demonstration of its AI programming assistant, Devin AI, tailored to automate software engineering functions. At that stage, the company’s team of ten individuals collectively held ten IOI gold medals, including members such as Neal Wu (Scott Wu’s brother), Korotkevich, and He. This high level of expertise was highlighted as a key factor in advancing sophisticated AI coding technologies.
Initial capital was provided by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, which contributed $21 million in early 2024, valuing the company at $350 million. Subsequently, in April 2024, Founders Fund spearheaded a $175 million investment round that raised Cognition’s valuation to $2 billion, officially granting it Unicorn status.
In May 2024, Cognition formed a strategic alliance with Microsoft to deploy Devin AI on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Despite encouraging potential, apprehensions emerged regarding workforce impact and the practical effectiveness of Devin AI.
By March 2025, a financing round led by Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC elevated Cognition’s valuation to $4 billion. The following month saw the release of Devin 2.0, which introduced an integrated development environment engineered for enhanced collaboration among AI agents and implemented new pricing starting at $20.
In July 2025, Cognition announced plans to acquire Windsurf, a startup specializing in agentic IDEs, shortly after Google's $2.4 billion acquihire of Windsurf’s CEO and senior personnel. This acquisition contributed to boosting Cognition’s valuation to $10 billion by September 2025.