Elon Musk intercepted a key client of Anthropic: the chronicle of the $60 billion acquisition of Cursor
The artificial intelligence market is undergoing a tectonic shift. Elon Musk, using SpaceX shares as a transactional currency, has acquired Anysphere — the developer of the popular AI coding tool Cursor. The deal was valued at $60 billion and was closed just days before Anthropic filed for its initial public offering (IPO). This event directly impacts the financial prospects of one of the key competitors in the AI space.
How Cursor Fueled Anthropic
Cursor was not just another startup. This tool, built on Anthropic's Claude model, became the latter's primary channel for corporate sales. Every engineer using Cursor to write code was, in essence, a hidden paying customer for Anthropic. The flagship Composer feature, built on Claude Sonnet, gave rise to the term "vibe coding" — where a developer describes a task in words, and the AI writes the code. It was this product that attracted a significant portion of Silicon Valley and engineering teams from the Fortune 500.
According to my data, Anthropic's corporate revenue surged in 2025 largely thanks to Cursor. This tool became one of the largest external monetization channels for the Claude model, providing a steady, albeit indirect, stream of funds.
The Mechanics of the Deal: SpaceX's Printing Press
The most notable aspect of this deal is the payment method. Not a single dollar changed hands in cash. The entire $60 billion was paid in SpaceX shares. The scheme was as follows: Musk used the SpaceX IPO, which took place on June 12 at a price of $135 per share. By the following Tuesday, the shares were trading above $211. SpaceX investors faced dilution of approximately 3.4%, as new shares were issued to purchase Cursor. In effect, the IPO itself served as the printing press for this acquisition.
Musk deliberately took this step. In my assessment, he used the short-term hype surrounding the SpaceX listing to "print" $60 billion in shares and immediately spend them on a pre-agreed acquisition. This is a masterful move that demonstrates an understanding of market dynamics.
A Strategic Blow to Anthropic
Why is this connected to Anthropic's IPO? The fact is that Cursor was the largest corporate sales channel for Claude. Although, according to data from the service Ramp, Cursor's share among corporate clients declined from 41% in June 2025 to 26% in May 2026, losing ground to GitHub Copilot and Amazon Q, it remained a critically important asset.
Investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and Nvidia valued Cursor at $50 billion. Musk paid 20% more — $60 billion — for a company that, by some accounts, is losing ground. My analysis shows that Musk did this because his own AI division, xAI, was facing serious difficulties. By the end of March 2026, all 11 co-founders had left the company, and Musk himself admitted that xAI was "built incorrectly from the start." Buying a brand that engineers already trusted was easier than building one from scratch.
Thus, Musk didn't just buy a coding tool. He cut off one of Anthropic's key revenue streams right before its IPO. If Anthropic cannot quickly convince Wall Street that the lost revenue from Cursor can be replaced, one of the most anticipated AI IPOs of the year could face a serious threat. This is a classic example of how strategic maneuvers in the market affect fundamental company valuations.
My professional opinion: This deal is not just an acquisition. It is a demonstration of power and Musk's predatory strategy. He not only solved xAI's problem but also dealt a preemptive blow to a competitor at its most vulnerable moment. For Anthropic, losing Cursor means losing not just a client, but an entire channel that provided a significant portion of its corporate revenue. The market will be watching closely to see how the company explains this gap to investors.