AI coding startup Cognition may be worth up to $80 billion

Cognition, the startup behind the AI coding tool Devin, has received offers that would value it at $70 billion to $80 billion. In September it announced a value of $48 billion, just weeks ago. Sources told Business Insider the company is seriously considering a new funding round before the end of the year.

What Cognition does

Cognition was founded in 2023 by Scott Wu, Steven Hao and Walden Yan. It is based in San Francisco. Devin is an AI agent, meaning software that can carry out tasks on its own. This one is built to do software engineering work. Existing investors include a16z, Accel, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Elad Gil and Pear VC.

A valuation is the price tag investors put on a company when they buy a piece of it. The numbers are huge, but there is a recent comparison. SpaceX acquired AI coding company Cursor for $60 billion a few months ago. Last month, Cognition also had a public feud with rival Factory AI, which accused Cognition employees of posing as job applicants to seek product information. Cognition and a former Factory adviser denied that confidential information was sought or shared.

What is not known yet

• The talks are early, and the valuation targets could still change.
• Who made the offers has not been reported.
• How much money the round would raise is not stated.
• It is unclear whether a deal will happen at all.

For business owners, the signal is about direction. Investors are betting that AI agents will take on more of the work engineers do. If that proves true, it could change what software work costs and how fast products get built.