SpaceX confirmed on June 16, 2026 that it’s acquiring Anysphere — the company behind the AI coding editor Cursor — in an all-stock deal valuing the startup at $60 billion. It’s widely described as the largest acquisition of a venture-backed startup ever, and it lands just days after SpaceX’s own record-setting IPO. The deal is expected to close in Q3 2026, pending regulatory approval.
How the deal came together
SpaceX first secured an option on Cursor back in April 2026 — the right to either acquire the company outright for $60 billion, or walk away for roughly $10 billion in combined breakup fees and computing resources. At the time, Cursor was mid-raise on a $2 billion round that would have valued it above $50 billion, with Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, and Nvidia set to participate. SpaceX’s $60 billion offer topped that. Notably, Cursor had already turned down two separate acquisition approaches from OpenAI and a look from Microsoft, prioritizing independence — until SpaceX’s number became hard to refuse.
Why SpaceX wants a coding tool
The move fits a vertical-integration pattern Elon Musk has run before at Tesla. SpaceX merged with xAI earlier in 2026, and its AI division has reportedly struggled with model quality and researcher attrition despite sitting on massive compute via the Colossus supercomputer. Cursor gives SpaceX/xAI a distribution channel and product surface it didn’t have organically — and the two companies have said they’re jointly developing a new model slated for release through both Cursor and Grok.
What it means for Cursor’s business
Cursor’s revenue has grown fast — from roughly $2 billion annualized in February to around $3–4 billion by mid-2026, helped by its newer Cloud Agents product for long-running background coding tasks. But its market share among AI coding tools reportedly slipped from about 41% in June 2025 to roughly 26% by May 2026 as competitors like OpenCode and Claude Code gained ground. At $60 billion, SpaceX is paying around 15x revenue — one of the largest multiples ever paid for an AI software company, and a bet that Cursor’s growth (and SpaceX’s backing) resolve the margin pressure it was facing as an independent startup.
Should current Cursor users worry?
Nothing changes immediately — the deal hasn’t closed yet, and Cursor is expected to keep operating as a standalone product initially. The bigger open question is model neutrality: Cursor currently lets you choose between Claude, GPT, Gemini, and its own Composer model inside one interface. Once it’s a SpaceX/xAI subsidiary, whether that multi-model flexibility survives, or Cursor starts steering usage toward Grok, is the thing worth watching over the next couple of quarters.
Last updated: July 17, 2026.
Related reading
- Cursor review — full pricing, Composer, and feature breakdown
- OpenCode review — the open-source alternative gaining share