The Cognition logo. Image: Cognition logo via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
AI coding is turning into one of the fastest money-makers in tech. Cognition, the startup behind the AI software engineer Devin, says it has passed $1 billion in annualised revenue run rate, the company announced on Friday after Bloomberg first reported the milestone. Cognition was founded in January 2024.
From $492 million to $1 billion
A run rate is what a company would earn in a year if it kept selling at its current pace, so it’s a snapshot, not a full year’s revenue. Even so, the growth is steep. Cognition was at about $492 million in May and $900 million earlier this month, according to Unite.AI, which means it has roughly doubled in four months.
The money follows a big funding round. On September 8, Cognition raised more than $2 billion in a Series E led by Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, valuing it at $48 billion.
Who’s paying
Devin is an AI agent that takes on software engineering tasks, from writing and fixing code to investigating incidents. Unlike a coding assistant that suggests the next line, it’s meant to work through a job on its own, more like a junior engineer. Cognition has added features such as Auto-Triage for investigating incidents, Security Swarm for finding vulnerabilities, and Automations that plug into Slack, GitHub and Linear.
Its named customers include GE Aerospace, Rivian, Nvidia, Citi and Mercedes-Benz. “Every company is now a software company, from banks to automakers to governments, and every one of them has more to build than time to build it,” the company said in its announcement.
A crowded race
Cognition isn’t alone. AI coding has become the most fiercely fought corner of the AI business, with Anthropic’s Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex and SpaceX-owned Cursor all chasing the same developers, and all adding agents that can run for hours. Cursor, for example, recently launched agents that watch over your deploys, and Anthropic has been handing out free credit to pull people onto Claude Code in the cloud.
These figures come from Cognition and Bloomberg’s sources rather than audited accounts, and run rates can swing quickly, especially when big enterprise contracts are involved.
Why it matters
A two-year-old company crossing $1 billion a year shows where AI is making real money right now: writing software. It also raises the stakes for Anthropic and OpenAI, whose own coding tools are now competing directly with the startups built on top of their models.
