Source: Dev.to

Cursor and Windsurf battle for developer mindshare while Google TPUs challenge Nvidia’s dominance

Microsoft brings production‑ready MCP support to Azure Functions

---

AI Coding Tools: Cursor Agent Mode Takes on Windsurf Cascade

The fight for AI‑native IDE supremacy intensified this week as Cursor and Windsurf released competing agent features.

• Cursor launched Agent Mode on January 10, adding multi‑file editing and terminal command execution for its 2 million users.

  • The tool now matches Windsurf’s Cascade agent, which pioneered autonomous coding in November 2025.
  • Developers report that Cursor Agent Mode handles GitHub issues end‑to‑end, creating pull requests and responding to feedback.
  • Early benchmarks show the tool processes 40 % more context per request than competing IDEs.
  • The $20 / month Pro plan includes unlimited access to Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT‑4.

• Windsurf responded by cutting prices to $15 / month while adding support for GPT‑5.1 and Gemini 3 Pro models.

  • Its Cascade agent now processes code at 950 tokens / second using the proprietary SWE‑1.5 model—13 × faster than Claude Sonnet 4.5.
  • Windsurf claims 72 % of developers who try both tools choose Cascade over Cursor Composer for large refactoring tasks.

• GitHub Copilot remains the industry standard, with 85 % of developers using at least one AI coding tool.

  • Microsoft added Anthropic and Google models to Copilot Enterprise this month, breaking its exclusive OpenAI partnership.
  • The $10 / month individual tier still delivers the best value for developers who want inline suggestions without switching editors.

• Google disrupted the market on January 8 by previewing Antigravity, a free AI IDE built on VS Code.

  • The tool uses parallel agent orchestration to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
  • Developers can access Antigravity now during the public preview; Pro pricing is expected to be around $20 / month when it launches later this year.

---

AI Processing: Custom Chips Out‑ship GPUs for the First Time

• Google TPUs hit volume production this week, marking the first time custom AI chips will out‑ship general‑purpose GPUs.

  • Anthropic announced a partnership worth tens of billions of dollars to deploy > 1 million TPUs in 2026, adding > 1 GW of compute capacity by year‑end.
  • TPU v7 racks reached 36 000 units in January (each rack: 64 chips, optical circuit switching, clusters of 9 216 TPUs).
  • Google’s systolic‑array architecture delivers 4.7 × better performance‑per‑dollar than Nvidia H100 GPUs for inference workloads, with 67 % lower power consumption.

• Nvidia countered at CES 2026 with the Rubin platform.

  • Claims inference costs drop 90 % compared to Blackwell chips.
  • The Vera Rubin superchip combines one Vera CPU and two Rubin GPUs in a single processor.
  • CoreWeave, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon will deploy Rubin systems in the second half of 2026.

• OpenAI entered the custom‑chip race with plans to launch Titan by December 2026.

  • Titan will use TSMC N3 process and Broadcom ASIC design services, targeting large‑language‑model inference (inference costs are 15–118× higher than training).
  • A second‑generation Titan 2 will move to TSMC A16 in 2027.

• The shift to custom silicon reflects economic pressure on cloud providers.

  • Memory and storage costs now consume the largest share of AI‑infrastructure spending.
  • Analysts project an unprecedented AI data‑storage super‑cycle as companies retain more data for model training.

---

Standards & Protocols: MCP Gains Enterprise Governance

• Microsoft released production‑ready Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for Azure Functions on January 19.

  • Adds built‑in authentication via Microsoft Entra and OAuth 2.1.
  • Developers can now deploy MCP servers in .NET, Java, JavaScript, Python, and TypeScript without custom security code.
  • Addresses Tool Poisoning Attacks (identified by Invariant Labs) by requiring allow‑listing of all connected servers and enforcing on‑behalf‑of authentication (agents act as the user, not a service account).

• Salesforce Agentforce launched beta MCP support on January 16, adding enterprise governance for the 10 000 public MCP servers running since the protocol moved to the Linux Foundation in December 2025.

  • Enforces zero‑trust security by vetting every external MCP resource before connection.

• CAMARA released a white paper on January 12 showing how telecom networks expose real‑time capabilities through MCP.

  • Developed MCP servers for Quality on Demand, Device Location, and Edge Discovery APIs.
  • AI agents can now verify network conditions, improving contextual awareness for video streaming and fraud‑prevention systems.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced full MCP support across OpenAI products on March 26 2025 (Agents SDK and ChatGPT desktop app).

  • Google DeepMind and Microsoft followed with similar announcements, cementing MCP as the universal standard for AI connectivity.

• Industry observers compare MCP’s adoption speed to HTTP and SQL.

  • The protocol solved AI’s interoperability crisis by standardizing how agents communicate with external tools.
  • Context engineering has replaced prompt engineering as the primary skill for AI developers—teams now design how agents retrieve information rather than crafting better text prompts.

---

Experience the Future with Dremio

The AI landscape changes fast. Data teams need tools that keep pace.

---

Dremio’s semantic layer and Apache Iceberg foundation let you build AI‑ready data products queryable with natural language. The platform handles optimization automatically. You focus on insights, not infrastructure.

Ready to see agentic analytics in action?
Start your free trial today and experience the autonomous lakehouse.