Google Cloud inks AI partnership with developer tooling startup Replit

CLOUD

Google LLC’s cloud business today announced a partnership with Replit Inc., the creator of a popular coding platform used by more than 20 million developers.

The partnership will see Replit use Google’s large language models to help developers write software faster. Additionally, the companies plan to build a number of product integrations. 

Software teams use a type of application known as an IDE, or integrated development environment, to write code. Such applications combine the features of a word processor with other tools designed to streamline developers’ work. Replit provides a popular cloud-based IDE of the same that is designed to be easier to use than traditional alternatives.

Last month, the startup disclosed that more than 20 million developers have signed up for its platform since launch. That’s up from 10 million developers in December 2021, when it closed an $80 million funding round led by Coatue. It has raised more than $104 million in funding to date.

Replit’s new partnership with Google Cloud will see it gain access to large language models from the search giant. The company plans to incorporate the technology into Ghostwriter Chat, its AI-powered coding tool. The tool can generate code based on text prompts that developers type into Replit’s cloud-based IDE, as well as explain existing code and troubleshoot software errors.

“Generative AI can bring significant new capabilities to businesses and developers,” said June Yang, vice president of cloud AI and industry solutions at Google Cloud. “Google Cloud infrastructure and foundation models in Vertex AI will power Replit’s widely adopted platform, delivering more performance and scalability to millions of developers around the world.”

Replit and Google Cloud plan to collaborate in other areas as well. The startup said that it will use the search giant’s infrastructure to host its cloud-based IDE. Moreover, the companies are building product integrations that will help Replit users more easily incorporate Google Cloud services into their software projects.

The Alphabet Inc. unit plans to provide the startup’s users with “a quick way to get set up” on GCP products. Additionally, Google is making Replit its preferred IDE. It plans to make the IDE available to developers who use Google Cloud Services and the Workspace productivity suite’s software engineering tools.

Microsoft Corp., one of the search giant’s top cloud rivals, is also investing in AI-powered developer tooling. As part of the effort, its GitHub subsidiary last week debuted a new version of its Copilot coding assistant. The tool is partly based on OpenAI LLC’s latest GPT-4 model and can generate not only code but also command line queries.

Image: Replit