# Cognition revenue, valuation & funding

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/companies/cognition/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

Cognition was valued at $48B in its last confirmed round, in September 2026, and said it crossed a $1B yearly revenue run rate later that month. It's a private company with no stock ticker, and it hasn't announced a plan to go public.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

## At a glance

- Valuation: $48B at its last confirmed round, in September 2026. Business Insider reported offers at $70B to $80B in October 2026, in early talks.
- Revenue: a $1B yearly run rate in September 2026, as Cognition announced. It publishes no audited results.
- Status: private. No stock ticker. It hasn't announced plans to go public.
- Founded: by Scott Wu, Steven Hao and Walden Yan. The Next Web dates it to 2023, and Cognition says it started in January 2024.
- CEO: [Scott Wu](https://realalpha.app/builders/scott-wu/).
- Headquarters: San Francisco, with offices in New York, Austin, Washington D.C., London, Singapore and Japan.
- Investors: Founders Fund, Lux Capital, 8VC, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, among others.
- Products: Devin, its coding agent, plus Devin Desktop (built on Windsurf), the SWE-2 model and Devin Security.
- On Real Alpha: 17 moments of its people talking, from 3 interviews

## Is Cognition public? Can you buy its stock?

No. Cognition is a private company, so its shares don't trade on any stock exchange and it has no ticker symbol.

Its executives haven't announced a plan or a date for an IPO. In August 2026, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX had approached Cognition about buying it. Scott Wu denied the report and said Cognition isn't for sale, according to [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/cognition-ceo-denies-report-that-spacex-tried-to-acquire-the-startup/).

In October 2026, Business Insider reported that investors had made offers valuing Cognition at $70B to $80B, as [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/cognition-funding-talks-80bn-valuation-business-insider) relayed. The talks were early, and terms could change.

Its shares are held by its founders, staff and investors. This page reports facts and gives no investment advice.

## Valuation, round by round

Its valuation went from close to $4B in March 2025 to $48B in September 2026, about twelve times in under two years.

- Oct 2026 · $70B · In talks · — · [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/cognition-funding-talks-80bn-valuation-business-insider)
- Sep 2026 · $48B · $2B+ · Andreessen Horowitz and Accel · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-e)
- May 2026 · $26B · $1B+ · Lux Capital, General Catalyst and 8VC · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-d)
- Sep 2025 · $10.2B · $400M+ · Founders Fund · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/funding-growth-and-the-next-frontier-of-ai-coding-agents)
- Mar 2025 · about $4B · — · 8VC · [Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cognition-ai-hits-4-billion-022027711.html)

Sacra lists a $21M Series A led by Founders Fund in March 2024, but no primary report confirms it. Its $175M round at $2B in April 2024 isn't confirmed by a primary report either. The October 2026 offers at $70B to $80B are early talks, and terms could change.

## Revenue

Cognition doesn't publish audited results. It said its yearly run rate grew from $492M in May 2026 to $1B in September 2026, more than doubling.

- Sep 2026 · $1B · Reported · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/1b-run-rate)
- Sep 2026 · about $900M · Reported · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-e)
- May 2026 · $492M · Reported · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-d)
- Sep 2025 · $73M · Reported · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/funding-growth-and-the-next-frontier-of-ai-coding-agents)

A run rate is a month's revenue times twelve. It isn't audited revenue. The $73M figure for June 2025 counts Devin alone, before the Windsurf deal.

## How Cognition makes money

Cognition sells Devin by subscription and through enterprise contracts. Self-serve plans run from a free tier to $200 a month, according to [Devin Docs](https://docs.devin.ai/admin/billing/self-serve).

Teams accounts start at $80 a month plus $40 a month for each full developer seat. Enterprise pricing is negotiated.

- **Self-serve plans.** A free tier, Pro at $20 a month and Max at $200 a month. · [Devin Docs](https://docs.devin.ai/admin/billing/self-serve)
- **Government.** Cognition for Government launched on February 25, 2026. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)
- **Windsurf's business.** Windsurf had $82M of ARR when Cognition agreed to buy it in July 2025, with enterprise ARR doubling each quarter. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.ai/blog/windsurf)

From Cognition's interviews

- [Measure AI spend by output, not token counts](https://realalpha.app/s/measure-ai-spend-by-output-not-token-counts/) · Scott Wu · Founders · Jun 28, 2026
- [AI could make one-off software economical](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-could-make-one-off-software-economical/) · Scott Wu · Founders · Jun 28, 2026
- [AI coding's bigger payoff may be expanding what people can build](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-codings-bigger-payoff-may-be-expanding-what-people-can/) · Scott Wu · Sourcery · Jul 27, 2026

## Products

Cognition agreed to buy Windsurf in July 2025, days after Google hired away Windsurf's CEO, a co-founder and its research leads, [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/?p=3043855) reported.

About three weeks after the deal, Cognition laid off 30 employees and offered buyouts to the remaining Windsurf staff, according to [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/05/three-weeks-after-acquiring-windsurf-cognition-offers-staff-the-exit-door/).

It has since bought more companies. It welcomed The Interaction Company in July 2026 and said in October 2026 that Corridor is joining, on [its website](https://cognition.ai).

- **Devin** (March 2024). A coding agent that carries out software engineering tasks. Cognition released its first demo that month. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition_AI)
- **Devin 2.0** (April 2025). Added a cloud IDE where developers can inspect the agent's work, edit files and run tests. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/cognition/)
- **Windsurf** (July 2025). The agentic IDE, bought with its IP, product, trademark and brand. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.ai/blog/windsurf)
- **Devin Desktop** (June 2, 2026). A desktop app built on Windsurf that renamed the Windsurf editor. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)
- **SWE-2** (September 10, 2026). Cognition's coding model. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)
- **Devin Security** (October 26, 2026). Finds and fixes security vulnerabilities in code. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)

From Cognition's interviews

- [Cognition negotiated the Windsurf acquisition in one weekend](https://realalpha.app/s/cognition-negotiated-the-windsurf-acquisition-in-one-weekend/) · Scott Wu · Sourcery · Jul 27, 2026
- [Windsurf's product integration was gradual, not forced](https://realalpha.app/s/windsurfs-product-integration-was-gradual-not-forced/) · Scott Wu · Sourcery · Jul 27, 2026
- [A MongoDB setup error revealed Devin’s potential](https://realalpha.app/s/a-mongodb-setup-error-revealed-devins-potential/) · Scott Wu · Sourcery · Jul 27, 2026
- [Coding agents are a step toward a new computer interface](https://realalpha.app/s/coding-agents-are-a-step-toward-a-new-computer-interface/) · Scott Wu · 20VC · Jul 18, 2025

## Customers

Cognition said in May 2026 that its enterprise usage had grown more than 10x since the start of the year, in [its funding post](https://cognition.com/blog/series-d).

When Cognition agreed to buy Windsurf, Windsurf had 350+ enterprise customers and hundreds of thousands of daily active users, [Cognition said](https://cognition.ai/blog/windsurf).

- **Named in May 2026.** Citi, Mercedes-Benz, Goldman Sachs, Elevance, Dell, Santander, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-d)
- **Named in September 2026.** NVIDIA for chip design, GE Aerospace, Citi, Mercedes-Benz and Modal. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-e)

From Cognition's interviews

- [Cognition found its first enterprise fit in repetitive migrations](https://realalpha.app/s/cognition-found-its-first-enterprise-fit-in-repetitive/) · Scott Wu · Founders · Jun 28, 2026
- [Cognition put its whole team on its first enterprise customer](https://realalpha.app/s/cognition-put-its-whole-team-on-its-first-enterprise/) · Scott Wu · Founders · Jun 28, 2026
- [Coding-agent adoption could reach far beyond software engineers](https://realalpha.app/s/coding-agent-adoption-could-reach-far-beyond-software/) · Scott Wu · Sourcery · Jul 27, 2026

## Leadership

- **[Scott Wu](https://realalpha.app/builders/scott-wu/),** co-founder and CEO. He is a three-time IOI gold medalist. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/cognition-ceo-denies-report-that-spacex-tried-to-acquire-the-startup/)
- **Steven Hao,** co-founder and CTO. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition_AI)
- **[Walden Yan](https://realalpha.app/builders/walden-yan/),** co-founder and chief product officer. He is an IOI gold medalist. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition_AI)
- **[Russell Kaplan](https://realalpha.app/builders/russell-kaplan/),** president. He previously led Scale AI's machine learning organization.
- **Alex Stamos,** chief information security officer since September 2026. He was security chief at Facebook and Yahoo. · [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/cognition-funding-talks-80bn-valuation-business-insider)

From Cognition's interviews

- [One real task convinced Wu that Devin’s approach could work](https://realalpha.app/s/one-real-task-convinced-wu-that-devins-approach-could-work/) · Scott Wu · Founders · Jun 28, 2026

## Who owns Cognition?

Its founders, staff and investors. As a private company it doesn't publish who holds what, and no stake has been disclosed.

Cognition says it has raised over $3.5B in total, on [its about page](https://cognition.com/about).

- **Andreessen Horowitz and Accel** led the September 2026 round at $48B, as new investors. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-e)
- **Lux Capital and General Catalyst** led the May 2026 round at $26B, with 8VC. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-d)
- **Founders Fund** led the September 2025 round at $10.2B. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/funding-growth-and-the-next-frontier-of-ai-coding-agents)
- **8VC,** Joe Lonsdale's firm, led a March 2025 round at close to $4B, Bloomberg reported. · [Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cognition-ai-hits-4-billion-022027711.html)
- **Benchmark, Bessemer, Kleiner Perkins, Greylock and Lightspeed** joined the September 2026 round, with Altimeter, Bond Capital, Meritech, Atreides, Valor and T. Rowe Price. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-e)
- **Bain Capital Ventures** is named by Cognition among its investors. · [Cognition's about page](https://cognition.com/about)

## Competitors

[Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/cognition/) names GitHub Copilot, Cursor, OpenAI's Codex, Anthropic's Claude Code, Replit and Lovable among Cognition's competitors.

Scott Wu has said Cognition's independence lets it work across models from different labs.

- **[Cursor](https://realalpha.app/companies/#cursor),** one of its main rivals. SpaceX made its $60bn takeover of Cursor official in June 2026. · [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/cognition-funding-talks-80bn-valuation-business-insider)
- **[OpenAI](https://realalpha.app/companies/openai/),** with Codex. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/cognition/)
- **[Anthropic](https://realalpha.app/companies/anthropic/),** with Claude Code. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/cognition/)
- **GitHub Copilot,** which competes through GitHub, VS Code and existing enterprise processes, Sacra says. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/cognition/)
- **[Replit](https://realalpha.app/companies/replit/) and [Lovable](https://realalpha.app/companies/lovable/),** which build apps from plain language.

What its people said about the competition

- [Focused startups can beat companies with far more resources](https://realalpha.app/s/focused-startups-can-beat-companies-with-far-more-resources/) · Scott Wu · Founders · Jun 28, 2026
- [Enterprises need help changing how they build software](https://realalpha.app/s/enterprises-need-help-changing-how-they-build-software/) · Scott Wu · Sourcery · Jul 27, 2026

## Timeline and latest news

- Oct 28, 2026 · Business Insider reported investor offers valuing Cognition at $70B to $80B. Talks were early. · [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/cognition-funding-talks-80bn-valuation-business-insider)
- Oct 28, 2026 · Cognition announced that Corridor is joining the company. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)
- Oct 26, 2026 · Introduced Devin Security, which finds and fixes vulnerabilities. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)
- Sep 25, 2026 · Said it crossed a $1B yearly revenue run rate. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/1b-run-rate)
- Sep 10, 2026 · Introduced SWE-2, its coding model. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)
- Sep 8, 2026 · Raised over $2B at a $48B valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Accel. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-e)
- Aug 19, 2026 · Bloomberg reported SpaceX had approached Cognition. Scott Wu denied it and said Cognition isn't for sale. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/cognition-ceo-denies-report-that-spacex-tried-to-acquire-the-startup/)
- Jul 23, 2026 · Welcomed The Interaction Company. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)
- Jun 2, 2026 · Introduced Devin Desktop, built on Windsurf. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)
- May 27, 2026 · Raised over $1B at a $26B valuation, led by Lux Capital, General Catalyst and 8VC. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-d)
- Feb 25, 2026 · Introduced Cognition for Government. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)
- Sep 8, 2025 · Raised over $400M at a $10.2B post-money valuation, led by Founders Fund. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/funding-growth-and-the-next-frontier-of-ai-coding-agents)
- Jul 14, 2025 · Signed a deal to acquire Windsurf, the agentic IDE. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.ai/blog/windsurf)
- Mar 2025 · Bloomberg reported it raised hundreds of millions of dollars at close to $4B, led by 8VC. · [Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cognition-ai-hits-4-billion-022027711.html)
- Mar 2024 · Released a demo of Devin, its AI coding tool. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition_AI)
- Jan 2024 · Cognition says it started the company this month. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/1b-run-rate)

## In their own words, and what followed

- [Coding-agent adoption could reach far beyond software engineers](https://realalpha.app/s/coding-agent-adoption-could-reach-far-beyond-software/) · Scott Wu · Sourcery · Jul 27, 2026
  > “roughly every software engineer in the world”
  Reported after · On September 25, 2026, Cognition said it had crossed a $1B yearly revenue run rate. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/1b-run-rate)

- [Cognition found its first enterprise fit in repetitive migrations](https://realalpha.app/s/cognition-found-its-first-enterprise-fit-in-repetitive/) · Scott Wu · Founders · Jun 28, 2026
  > “Our first success ended up being with a company called NewBank, biggest bank in Brazil”
  Reported after · In September 2026, Cognition said Devin powers engineering teams at NVIDIA, GE Aerospace, Citi, Mercedes-Benz and Modal. · [Cognition's blog](https://cognition.com/blog/series-e)

- [Focused startups can beat companies with far more resources](https://realalpha.app/s/focused-startups-can-beat-companies-with-far-more-resources/) · Scott Wu · Founders · Jun 28, 2026
  > “if you do everything, you will lose to Microsoft or Google who does everything”
  Reported after · In August 2026, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX had approached Cognition. Wu denied it and said Cognition isn't for sale. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/cognition-ceo-denies-report-that-spacex-tried-to-acquire-the-startup/)

- [Coding agents are a step toward a new computer interface](https://realalpha.app/s/coding-agents-are-a-step-toward-a-new-computer-interface/) · Scott Wu · 20VC · Jul 18, 2025
  > “the next generation of human computer interface”
  Reported after · On June 2, 2026, Cognition introduced Devin Desktop, built on Windsurf, and renamed the Windsurf editor. · [Cognition's website](https://cognition.ai)

## Questions people ask

### Is Cognition a public company? Can I buy Cognition stock?

No. Cognition is private and has no ticker, so its shares aren't sold on any exchange. It hasn't announced plans to go public.

### When will Cognition IPO?

It hasn't announced an IPO plan or date. In August 2026 Scott Wu said Cognition isn't for sale, after a report that SpaceX had approached it ([TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/cognition-ceo-denies-report-that-spacex-tried-to-acquire-the-startup/)).

### Who owns Cognition?

Its founders, staff and investors, including Founders Fund, Lux Capital, 8VC, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz and Accel. Stakes haven't been disclosed.

### Who is the CEO of Cognition?

[Scott Wu](https://realalpha.app/builders/scott-wu/), who co-founded the company.

### Who founded Cognition?

Scott Wu, Steven Hao and Walden Yan. The Next Web dates the founding to 2023, and Cognition says it started in January 2024.

### How much is Cognition worth?

$48B at its last confirmed round, in September 2026 ([Cognition](https://cognition.com/blog/series-e)). Business Insider reported offers at $70B to $80B in October 2026, in early talks.

### How much revenue does Cognition make?

Cognition said it crossed a $1B yearly run rate in September 2026 ([Cognition](https://cognition.com/blog/1b-run-rate)), up from $492M in May 2026.

### Is Cognition profitable?

It doesn't publish results. In September 2025 it said its total net burn was under $20M across its whole history ([Cognition](https://cognition.com/blog/funding-growth-and-the-next-frontier-of-ai-coding-agents)).

### How does Cognition make money?

Subscriptions to Devin from $20 to $200 a month, Teams plans from $80 a month plus seats, and negotiated enterprise contracts.

### Who are Cognition's customers?

It names Citi, Mercedes-Benz, Goldman Sachs, Dell, NVIDIA, GE Aerospace, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy. It said enterprise usage grew more than 10x in early 2026.

### Where is Cognition headquartered?

San Francisco, with offices in New York, Austin, Washington D.C., London, Singapore and Japan.

### Who are Cognition's competitors?

Cursor, now owned by SpaceX, plus OpenAI's Codex, Anthropic's Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Replit and Lovable.

## Every moment from Cognition's people

### Inside the Fastest-Growing Category in AI: Scott Wu, CEO of $26B Cognition
Sourcery · Jul 27, 2026

- [Cognition negotiated the Windsurf acquisition in one weekend](https://realalpha.app/s/cognition-negotiated-the-windsurf-acquisition-in-one-weekend/) · 4 min
- [Enterprises need help changing how they build software](https://realalpha.app/s/enterprises-need-help-changing-how-they-build-software/) · 7 min
- [A MongoDB setup error revealed Devin’s potential](https://realalpha.app/s/a-mongodb-setup-error-revealed-devins-potential/) · 4 min
- [Windsurf's product integration was gradual, not forced](https://realalpha.app/s/windsurfs-product-integration-was-gradual-not-forced/) · 4 min
- [AI progress still faces organizational and feedback constraints](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-progress-still-faces-organizational-and-feedback/) · 4 min
- [Coding-agent adoption could reach far beyond software engineers](https://realalpha.app/s/coding-agent-adoption-could-reach-far-beyond-software/) · 4 min
- [AI coding's bigger payoff may be expanding what people can build](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-codings-bigger-payoff-may-be-expanding-what-people-can/) · 3 min

### The Future of Software & AI | Cognition’s Scott Wu
Founders · Jun 28, 2026

- [Cognition found its first enterprise fit in repetitive migrations](https://realalpha.app/s/cognition-found-its-first-enterprise-fit-in-repetitive/) · 5 min
- [AI progress calls for first-principles thinking](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-progress-calls-for-first-principles-thinking/) · 2 min
- [Focused startups can beat companies with far more resources](https://realalpha.app/s/focused-startups-can-beat-companies-with-far-more-resources/) · 5 min
- [One real task convinced Wu that Devin’s approach could work](https://realalpha.app/s/one-real-task-convinced-wu-that-devins-approach-could-work/) · 7 min
- [Cognition put its whole team on its first enterprise customer](https://realalpha.app/s/cognition-put-its-whole-team-on-its-first-enterprise/) · 5 min
- [Measure AI spend by output, not token counts](https://realalpha.app/s/measure-ai-spend-by-output-not-token-counts/) · 4 min
- [AI could make one-off software economical](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-could-make-one-off-software-economical/) · 3 min
- [Long-running agents could pursue missions, not just tasks](https://realalpha.app/s/long-running-agents-could-pursue-missions-not-just-tasks/) · 6 min

### Cognition CEO Scott Wu on Acquiring Windsurf: The Process, The Deal, The Rationale
20VC · Jul 18, 2025

- [Reinforcement learning can train agents for specific jobs](https://realalpha.app/s/reinforcement-learning-can-train-agents-for-specific-jobs/) · 3 min
- [Coding agents are a step toward a new computer interface](https://realalpha.app/s/coding-agents-are-a-step-toward-a-new-computer-interface/) · 2 min

## People on Real Alpha

- [Scott Wu](https://realalpha.app/builders/scott-wu/), Co-founder & CEO, Cognition
- [Russell Kaplan](https://realalpha.app/builders/russell-kaplan/), President, Cognition
- [Walden Yan](https://realalpha.app/builders/walden-yan/), Co-founder & CPO, Cognition

## How this page is sourced

Each figure links to the filing, company statement or news report it came from, with its date. Run rates are what reporters were told, not audited results; estimates and unconfirmed reports are marked. Quotes are what each person said on the record, with the minute they said it.