Google Completes Acquihire of AI Coding Startup Mechanize

Google has completed an acqui-hire of Mechanize, a San Francisco-based AI coding startup, according to a report from Business Insider. Co-founder Tamay Besiroglu joined Google DeepMind in August 2026, along with more than ten engineers from the startup.

Financial terms of the deal have been disclosed. Google was reported to have discussed a transaction valued at around $1.5 billion to bring in Mechanize's technology and talent. Earlier this year, Mechanize raised $9.1 million at a $500 million valuation. The company is currently led by CEO Jiv Assadi and is expected to continue operating other businesses after losing its founding team.

This type of deal, known as an acqui-hire, allows Google to take on key personnel and technology while avoiding antitrust reviews by regulators such as the U.S. FTC and the UK CMA. Google previously took a similar approach in bringing on the Windsurf team.

The Mechanize employees joining Google are focused on mid-training work, aiming to strengthen model capabilities. Mechanize's technical work concentrated on improving AI models' ability to handle software engineering and coding tasks, an area where some of Google's recent models have underperformed.