Musk's $60 Billion Deal: How the Cursor Acquisition Hit Anthropic's IPO Plans
Elon Musk executed a strategic maneuver by acquiring Anysphere, the developer of the popular AI code-writing tool Cursor, for $60 billion. The payment was made exclusively in SpaceX shares, which is a notable fact in itself. The deal was closed literally a few days before the anticipated IPO of Anthropic, and in my analysis, this is not a coincidence but a well-planned move.
Why Cursor was critically important to Anthropic
Cursor operated on Anthropic's Claude model. Essentially, every engineer using this platform was a paying customer of Anthropic "under the hood." The tool became one of the largest external monetization channels for Claude, especially thanks to the flagship Composer feature, which gave rise to the term "vibe coding." Anthropic's corporate revenue surged in 2025 largely due to the stream from Cursor. By removing this channel, Musk dealt a direct blow to one of his competitor's key revenue sources.
The mechanics of the deal: How SpaceX became a "printing press"
The mechanics of the deal deserve special attention. SpaceX went public on June 12 at a price of $135 per share, and by the following Tuesday, the shares were trading above $211. Musk used this rally to "print" $60 billion in new shares and immediately direct them toward the purchase of Cursor. SpaceX investors faced dilution of approximately 3.4%, but for Musk, this proved to be an effective way to convert market hype into a real asset. Essentially, the SpaceX IPO became a printing press for this deal.
The connection to Anthropic's IPO and xAI's vulnerability
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. Despite the loss of leadership, Musk paid 20% more than the $50 billion valuation that investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Nvidia considered aggressive. This suggests that for him, the value lay not so much in the product itself as in its strategic significance.
The key reason is the problems within Musk's own AI division, xAI. 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." The purchase of Cursor allowed SpaceX to acquire a brand that engineers already trust and a narrative about AI ahead of its public market debut.
My analysis: This deal is a brilliant but aggressive move. Musk didn't just buy technology; he deliberately cut off Anthropic from one of its largest sales channels 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 listings this year could face a serious threat. This is a classic example of how asset consolidation in the hands of one player can radically change the market landscape for everyone else.