Just days after its massive IPO, SpaceX says it’s spending $60 billion to buy Cursor — a bet designed to help Elon Musk’s giant rocket/AI/social media giant win over lucrative enterprise customers and close the gap with AI rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI.
The acquisition was not entirely unexpected: SpaceX announced a unique arrangement in April in which it agreed to either acquire the programming platform for $60 billion or pay a $10 billion breakup fee. There were delays in completing the deal while the company went public.
In an SEC filing, SpaceX said it expects the deal to close during the third quarter of 2026.
Musk has previously expressed his frustration over xAI’s sub-par coding product, which lags behind popular tools like Anthropic’s Cloud Code and OpenAI’s Codex. Getting Cursor, which offers similar tools to automate coding, can help bridge the gap. Startups have experienced explosive growth in recent years amid increasing demand for more efficient programming tools and a shift toward “vibe coding” in the industry.
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