Fierce Tech Competition: AI Programming Pioneer Devin's Valuation Surpasses Cursor

The AI programming track has become so fiercely competitive that people are numb to it. It is worth noting that prior to this, Cursor was once known as "the fastest-growing software company in history".

But now, its own valuation has barely settled, and it is almost caught up by Devin, the AI programmer. This indicator is usually used to measure how aggressive investors' expectations for the company's future growth are.

What Happened

The shrinking multiple means the company's actual revenue growth rate is faster than the rate at which investors raise valuations. In other words, Cognition's skyrocketing valuation not only comes from narrative hype, but also from genuinely growing revenue.

• Just now, Devin's developer Cognition released a new performance report: its Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is approaching 1 billion US dollars, almost doubling from the previous financing round.

• Behind this performance report is a new round of financing that has not been officially announced yet, with a target valuation heading straight for 40 billion US dollars.

• Three months ago, this figure stood at 26 billion US dollars, representing a 54% increase...

Key Details

A corresponding environment will be launched every time a new work session is started. The configuration process is so easy that you only need to speak a command: give Devin a sentence, and Devin will handle all the work for you.

• This means Cognition will officially surpass Cursor's $29.3 billion valuation in the private market before it was acquired by SpaceX.

• Calculated based on the new $40 billion valuation, Cognition's revenue multiple is about 40 times; three months ago, this multiple was 52.

• In fact, Cognition was founded in 2023, less than 3 years ago, and it follows the same story of "starting by writing code in a small apartment".

Why It Matters

It only takes 3 seconds for the system to create a snapshot, including code repositories, development tools, environment variables, and dependencies. In comparison, configuring a complete local development environment may take engineers several days to deal with various problems such as dependency.

• He won a gold medal in the 2014 IOI competition, ranking 6th globally.

• And CPO Walden Yan dropped out of Harvard University in 2023 to start his business.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• He previously worked at Cursor for a short time, and he is also the gold medalist of IOI 2020.

• Continued reporting by 36Kr as more details emerge