Cognition 102 Billion Valuation Wealth Creation! 28-Year-Old CTO's Net Worth Surpasses Zuckerberg

Cognition completes $400 million funding round, valuation at $10.2 billion. CTO Steven Hao (28 years old) has a net worth of $1.3 billion, becoming a billionaire; CPO Yan has $830 million; CEO Wu has $600 million. The company’s programming AI Devin has been adopted by Citibank, and last year they acquired Windsurf, with investors including Founders Fund.

Math Olympiad Gold Medalist Turns AI Billionaire

All three founders of Cognition are gold medalists in programming competitions, meeting at various programming contests. At age 15, Wu and Hao competed together in the International Mathematical Olympiad. Before founding Cognition, Hao was a core engineer at Scale AI, a data annotation giant that had previously sold nearly half of its shares to Meta. This path of jumping from top tech companies to entrepreneurship has become a standard formula for billionaires in Silicon Valley.

Wu is from Louisiana. Two years ago, a video of him crushing an opponent in a competitive math match went viral, becoming a niche meme in the AI community. Some netizens joked, “It’s reversed—Devin AI is actually Scott himself using chat software to answer your questions.” Behind this jest is recognition of the talent of a genius programmer. Wu’s logical thinking and quick problem-solving skills demonstrated in math competitions are core qualities needed to build AI programming tools.

The youngest of the three, Yan, was selected for the Neo Scholar program, initiated by early Facebook investor Ali Partovi, aimed at discovering potential tech talents among college students. Unlike the Thiel Fellows program, participation in Neo does not require dropping out to start a company, but Yan chose to drop out of Harvard University to fully dedicate himself to building Cognition. Dropping out at 21 sounds crazy, but when your company is valued at $10.2 billion, the correctness of that decision is self-evident.

It is not yet disclosed what proportion of Hao’s shares are higher than Yan and Wu. Usually, the CEO holds the most shares in startups, but Cognition’s equity structure shows CTO Hao holds the largest stake. This may reflect Hao’s central role in technical architecture and product development, or a special arrangement during early funding negotiations. The three founders did not respond to Forbes’ inquiries, and the company declined to comment.

Cognition’s Founders’ Wealth and Backgrounds

Steven Hao (CTO): Net worth $1.3 billion, 28 years old, former core engineer at Scale AI

Walden Yan (CPO): Net worth $830 million, 21 years old, Harvard dropout

Scott Wu (CEO): Net worth about $600 million, 28 years old, went viral for crushing math competitions

The sudden wealth of the three founders epitomizes the explosive growth of the AI industry, creating new billionaires at an unprecedented speed. This wealth creation pace far exceeds that of the previous internet bubble era, with AI startups reaching a valuation of hundreds of billions in just 1-2 years from founding.

Devin Disrupts Traditional Programming, Adopted by Citibank

Cognition’s programming AI Devin has been adopted by Citibank, fintech company Ramp, and others. Software engineers can input simple commands and complete project development with Devin, or delegate repetitive tasks to AI, focusing on maintaining existing codebases. This “Vibe Coding” mode is redefining software development.

Traditional programming requires engineers to write code line-by-line, debug errors, and optimize performance, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Devin’s revolutionary capability is converting natural language instructions into executable code. Engineers only need to describe the desired functionality, and Devin automatically generates code, tests, fixes bugs, and even optimizes performance. This workflow transforms programming from “handwriting” to “verbal commands,” greatly increasing efficiency.

Adoption by Citibank, a major financial institution with high standards for security and reliability, signifies Devin’s technological maturity. Ramp, a fast-growing fintech, adopting Devin indicates it is suitable not only for large traditional companies but also for startups seeking rapid iteration and cost control.

Cognition’s competitors in the vibe programming field include the viral Cursor and Claude from Anthropic, known for strong programming capabilities. The market is rapidly becoming crowded, and Cognition’s $10.2 billion valuation requires continuous demonstration of its technological edge. The core difference may lie in Devin’s “agent” feature, which not only generates code but can autonomously execute complex multi-step tasks—an autonomy that simple code generators cannot match.

Dramatic Turn in Windsurf Acquisition, Blocking OpenAI

Last year, Cognition was involved in a dramatic acquisition event shaking the vibe programming industry. For months, rumors circulated that OpenAI would acquire competitor Windsurf, a startup in AI programming. But the story suddenly reversed: Windsurf’s founders announced that the core team would join Google through a $2.4 billion deal. Two days later, Cognition announced it had acquired the remaining assets and team of Windsurf, with the specific deal amount undisclosed.

This three-party battle reveals fierce competition in the AI coding market. OpenAI aimed to strengthen its position by acquiring Windsurf, but Google outbid by offering a higher price to snatch the core team. Cognition picked up Windsurf’s remaining assets—though not the core team—likely including patents, customer relationships, and brand value. Such “fragmented” acquisitions are common in tech, but the rapid sequence of moves among the three in such a short time is highly dramatic.

Wu and Windsurf’s new CEO Jeff Wang appeared together to announce the acquisition, stating: “The new Cognition will develop at an unprecedented speed, and we aim to redefine human-AI collaboration.” This statement reveals Cognition’s ambition not just to provide tools but to establish a new paradigm of human-machine cooperation.

Young Billionaires’ Record-Breaking in the AI Wealth Boom

The wealth of the three founders overnight exemplifies the explosive growth of the AI industry, creating new billionaires at an unprecedented pace. In October last year, the three founders of AI data annotation startup Mercor, aged 22, became the youngest self-made tech billionaires in history, surpassing Mark Zuckerberg’s record—Zuckerberg was a year older when he became a billionaire.

Before these three, the youngest self-made billionaire was 27-year-old Shayne Coplan, CEO of gambling platform Polymarket, who held that title for only 20 days. Prior to Coplan, the record-holder was 28-year-old Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI, who held the title for about 18 months. Meanwhile, after the valuation of betting platform Kalshi soared to $11 billion, 29-year-old co-founder Luana Lopez Lara became the youngest female self-made billionaire globally.

These rapid record-breaking events demonstrate the astonishing speed of wealth creation in AI. Traditional tech companies often take 10-15 years from founding to creating billionaires, but in the AI era, this cycle is compressed to 2-3 years or less. Cognition’s valuation of $10.2 billion in less than two years since founding is extremely rare in business history. The driving force behind this is the explosive demand for AI technology and the frenzy of capital markets.

Cognition’s investors are top-tier institutions, including Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Bain Capital Ventures. Founders Fund, founded by Peter Thiel, has invested in giants like Facebook, SpaceX, Palantir. Khosla Ventures focuses on disruptive tech investments, and Bain Capital Ventures is the venture arm of the traditional private equity giant Bain Capital. Backed by these top institutions, Cognition gains not only funding but also resources, connections, and credibility.