New Delhi, July 21 -- Varun Mohan, the Indian-origin CEO of AI startup Windsurf, is facing backlash after quitting the company to join Google's DeepMind, leaving behind a deal that could have sold the firm to OpenAI for $3 billion.

His abrupt exit, along with co-founder Douglas Chen, left Windsurf in turmoil. The startup managed to secure a last-minute acquisition by another AI firm, Cognition, after a weekend of frantic negotiations. The company's new CEO, Jeff Wang, described the rescue as "crazy".

Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla sharply criticised Mohan, saying he would not work with him again. "Windsurf and others are really bad examples of founders leaving their teams behind and not even sharing the proceeds," Mr Khosla wrote on X....