SpaceX Acquires AI Coding Startup Cursor for $60 Bn Days after Nasdaq Debut

SpaceX has formally agreed to acquire Anysphere, the San Francisco-based startup behind AI coding assistant Cursor, in an all-stock deal valuing the company at $60 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, according to a regulatory filing, and ranks among the largest acquisitions of a venture-backed startup globally.

The announcement comes days after SpaceX's blockbuster debut on the Nasdaq, which valued the company at more than $2 trillion. SpaceX shares rose in early trading on Tuesday following the deal announcement, pushing its market capitalisation above $2.7 trillion, as per CBS News.

What Cursor Brings to the Table

Founded in 2022, Cursor has grown rapidly into one of the fastest-scaling AI software companies. It currently has around $2.6 billion in annualised business-to-business revenue, with enterprise sales growing sharply, according to company data shared with Reuters. Cursor has raised $3.3 billion in funding from investors including Nvidia, Google, Accel, Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

The deal will make Cursor a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX. Cursor CEO Michael Truell said in a statement that the company is "excited to partner with the SpaceX team" to advance its frontier AI capabilities and continue serving its customers and partners.

The acquisition also doubles the net worth of Cursor's cofounders. Truell, Aman Sanger and Sualeh Asif, all 25, had each held a 4.5% stake in Anysphere, worth at least $1.3 billion, after the company achieved a valuation of nearly $30 billion in a $2.3 billion funding round last November.

Why SpaceX Wants Cursor

SpaceX had been eyeing Cursor for months, as per a Reuters report. In April, it announced an option to either acquire the startup for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for a working partnership. With the IPO now complete, SpaceX has exercised the acquisition option.

The move strengthens SpaceX's position in AI coding, one of the first sectors where artificial intelligence has translated into meaningful business revenue. In its IPO filing, SpaceX had flagged an addressable market worth $28.5 trillion, with a significant share expected to come from enterprise AI.

SpaceX said it has been jointly training a new AI model with Cursor and plans to release it on both the Cursor platform and Grok Build, xAI's coding agent. The deal reportedly gives xAI, which merged with SpaceX in February, a stronger foothold against rivals Anthropic and OpenAI.