Google taps AI vibe-coder Replit in challenge to Anthropic and Cursor (www.cnbc.com)

Google Cloud has entered a multi-year partnership with AI coding startup Replit, aiming to strengthen its position in the competitive coding landscape against players like Anthropic and Cursor. This collaboration will enable Replit to expand its use of Google Cloud services, incorporate Google’s models, and enhance AI coding solutions for enterprise customers, with Google remaining its primary cloud provider. The deal coincides with Replit's remarkable growth, exemplified by a recent funding round that raised $250 million, boosting its valuation to $3 billion and annualized revenue from $2.8 million to $150 million in under a year. The significance of this partnership lies in the emerging trend of vibe-coding, which allows users with minimal programming experience to generate functioning code using natural language prompts. This democratization of coding could broaden the appeal of Google Cloud to non-developers and accelerate the adoption of AI technologies in businesses. Additionally, with Google’s advanced model, Gemini 3, gaining traction and driving share price increases for Alphabet, this collaboration positions both companies to capitalize on the rapid growth of AI-driven development tools in the marketplace.