Scott Wu grew up near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has said he was bullied from around sixth grade and was a loner until math and programming competitions put him among similar kids. He won gold at the International Olympiad in Informatics in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
He left high school after junior year and spent about two years at Harvard. In summer 2017 he started Lunchclub in San Francisco, and he left in June 2022. His mother died of cancer on 6 October 2023, after he had spent much of the pandemic in Louisiana with her.
Cognition began that November. On 17 November 2023, the day Sam Altman was fired, Wu was pitching an AI lab over lunch. He rented a house in Burlingame to build with friends, including Steven Hao and Walden Yan. Devin launched in March 2024 at 13 percent on SWE-bench and drew heavy criticism.
Founders Fund backed Cognition at $350 million, then $2 billion in April 2024. In July 2025 it agreed to buy Windsurf. On 8 September 2026 it announced a Series E of more than $2 billion at a $48 billion valuation.