Google is negotiating a deal worth over $1.5 billion to acquire Mechanize talent to enhance its AI coding capabilities

Google hopes to enhance its artificial intelligence coding capabilities, and it may have found a shortcut.

Four people familiar with the negotiations revealed that the tech giant has been in talks with San Francisco startup Mechanize in recent weeks, with a potential deal involving Google absorbing some of Mechanize's talent.

Some insiders say the deal is valued at over $1.5 billion, and negotiations are ongoing, with details subject to change. One insider stated that as part of the deal, Google is negotiating a non-exclusive licensing agreement for Mechanize's technology. This person added that the talent absorbed from Mechanize will work on model evaluation and development.

These negotiations reflect two major realities in the AI boom: code development has become one of the most important and profitable application scenarios for artificial intelligence; major tech giants are seeking alternative paths to acquire the talent and technology needed to maintain competitiveness.

This is not the first time Google has used alternative methods to acquire talent and technology. Over the past two years, Google has frequently employed a hybrid deal model to complete acquisitions, absorbing teams through talent acquisition while obtaining technology through licensing. Companies adopt such practices sometimes to avoid antitrust scrutiny associated with full acquisitions.

Last year, after OpenAI attempted to acquire Windsurf, Google quickly took over Windsurf's talent and obtained its technology license. Windsurf's CEO, Warren Mohan, now leads Google's AI coding platform Antigravity. In 2024, the search giant re-hired Character AI co-founder Noam Shazeer and paid for non-exclusive rights to use the AI technology of this startup (Shazeer has recently left Google to join OpenAI).

Google declined to comment via email, and Mechanize also did not respond.

Founded last year, Mechanize aims to automate various tasks, with a star-studded lineup of investors, including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, and podcast host Devakish Patel.

Earlier this year, the startup announced it had completed a $9.1 million funding round, with a post-money valuation of $500 million. Mechanize's CEO, Tamay Besiroglu, previously co-founded Epoch AI, which focuses on AI model testing.

Mechanize's technology can help tech companies improve the coding performance of their AI models. Google has had shortcomings in this area, while OpenAI and Anthropic have already secured a large number of developer clients with Codex and Claude Code.

Mechanize's goals extend beyond the coding field. Its website states: "We are currently focused on software engineering, but our long-term goal is to achieve comprehensive automation of high-value work across society."