Codeium

Codeium (now Windsurf) is an AI coding company that has built one of the most popular AI-native integrated development environments. Founded in 2021, the company rebranded its flagship product as Windsurf and has attracted a large developer user base with a generous free tier.

Windsurf's key differentiator is Cascade, an agentic coding feature that can understand multi-file context and make coordinated edits across an entire project. The IDE offers AI autocomplete, an integrated chat panel, and the ability to generate, refactor, and debug code with full awareness of the project structure. Windsurf supports multiple LLM backends and provides a VS Code-compatible experience with AI capabilities deeply embedded into every part of the development workflow.

Windsurf competes directly with Cursor (Anysphere) and GitHub Copilot in the rapidly growing AI code editor market. Its free tier — which includes substantial AI usage without requiring a subscription — has been a major driver of adoption, particularly among individual developers and students. The company is backed by significant venture funding and represents the shift toward AI being the primary interface for writing software, not just an assistant.