Latest news with #PremNair
India Today
5 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Windsurf AI engineer Prem Nair says he ditched Google offer because of payout issues, joined Cognition
There's a lot of drama going on in Silicon Valley around AI talent. Meta has been actively poaching leading AI engineers, while Google also acqui-hired Windsurf's top talent. But the Windsurf deal has been rather controversial so far with many people claiming that it led some people in Windsurf making great money whereas as other people with equity losing out in it. Now a top engineer from Windsurf has publicly announced that he has rejected a Google DeepMind offer and is moving to Cognition AI, after receiving just a fraction of his expected payout from engineer, Prem Nair, revealed that he got the offer from Google but while joining he lost 99 per cent of his expected payout in the process.'I was ultimately given a payout of only 1 per cent of what my shares would have been worth at the time of the deal,' Prem Qu Nair revealed in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He shared that his decision to move to Cognition was both a personal and professional reset after what he described as a high-pressure, zero-leverage situation. 'I was given an offer that would explode same day. I had to forfeit all of my vested shares earned over my 3.5+ years at Windsurf,' he wrote. Nair revealed that he was employee No 2 at Windsurf and played a key role in its AI+code initiatives. He was also among dozens of staffers caught in the wake of the company's rapid ongoing drama around Windsurf comes after the company recently had its dealing with OpenAI and Google. It was once poised for a $3 billion acquisition by OpenAI, but that deal collapsed allegedly due to Microsoft's demands over intellectual property. Google quickly intervened with an 'acqui-hire,' netting Windsurf's founders including CEO Varun Mohan and co-founder Douglas Chen, and securing a non-exclusive licence to its core technology and 42 of its top engineers for DeepMind. The company also reportedly signed a $2.4 billion non-exclusive technology licence with the deal has left over 200 employees, including early team members, getting little or no compensation from Nair is adding to the buzz. He has rejected Google and has joined Cognition AI, creators of the Devin coding agent, as the company looks to expand its position in AI-driven software development. 'There's never been a more exciting time and place for it than now at Cognition,' he wrote. 'It reminds me of the energy of the earliest days of Windsurf, where we wrote excessive amounts of code and had excessive amounts of fun.'Notably, Cognition recently acquired what remained of Windsurf, its employees, IP, and development infrastructure, in a follow-up deal after Google scooped parts of it. Cognition has promised accelerated vesting and equity participation for remaining team members.- Ends
Business Times
30-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
IHH Healthcare revenue could soften on medical inflation measures
[SINGAPORE] IHH Healthcare will likely face 'some softening of (patient admissions) and revenue' from measures the group has implemented to combat medical inflation in Malaysia, but the situation has 'improved considerably', said its group chief executive Dr Prem Nair on Friday (May 30). The group is now negotiating directly with insurers, offering more packages and discounts, he said. Issues that triggered the medical inflation issue, such as a weak ringgit, have 'abated significantly'. '(Medical inflation) has not fully gone away, but we have all now come to the table,' said Dr Nair, noting that the group is also in discussion with various parties including Malaysia's health ministry and life insurance association to curb medical inflation. The group in February guided that the country's current sustained period of medical inflation may affect IHH Healthcare's profit margins. Bank Negara Malaysia cited data indicating that medical cost inflation in Malaysia reached 15 per cent in 2024, above the global and Asia-Pacific average of 10 per cent, and rolled out measures to tackle the high costs. Dr Nair noted that although Malaysia now faces sustained medical inflation, these issues previously occurred in other markets IHH Healthcare has operations in. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up These countries have since come up with ways to manage high costs. For example, in Singapore, the government formed a committee for payers, providers and regulators to discuss, he said. 'Payer-provider issues have been with us in healthcare for the longest time... and it will never go away because there is a third party paying for the patient,' said Dr Nair. 'I can guarantee it will come up again in another country, and we will have to use the same playbook to manage these issues as well.' He was speaking at an analyst briefing after the group's first-quarter earnings. IHH Healthcare posted net profit of RM514 million (S$156.3 million) for the three months ended Mar 31, down 33 per cent from RM768 million in the corresponding year-ago period. Despite the impact of medical inflation and the Ramadan fasting period on Malaysia, contributions from Island Hospital in Penang resulted in the segment's revenue gaining 17 per cent year on year to RM1.1 billion. The segment's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation gained 14 per cent on year to RM273 million. The group in November last year completed the acquisition of the hospital. This resulted in a 'robust increase in in-patient admissions (in Malaysia), up 6 per cent', said group chief corporate officer Ashok Pandit. Group chief financial officer Dilip Kadambi added that without the medical tourism-focused Island Hospital, revenue growth in Malaysia would have been 'probably flattish' with a slight increase. Meanwhile, Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, which is currently operating at a lower capacity as it undergoes renovations, is on track to fully reopen by Q3 this year, said the group's senior management. 'While Q2 continues to be soft, we anticipate a reasonable rebound in the second half of the year. This recovery will be driven by successful negotiation with payers and completion of Mount Elizabeth Hospital renovations,' said Kadambi. Maybank Securities analysts Nur Natasha Ariza and Yin Shao Yang said the results are in line with expectations and IHH Healthcare's growth outlook remains intact, as it looks to add around 4,000 beds in several markets by 2028. 'Despite some geopolitical, structural and regulatory challenges across the different countries, we stay bullish on resilient demand and growing case-mix intensity as IHH remains focused on organic and opportunistic inorganic growth,' they said.
