Deal of the Century: Musk Snatches Cursor from Anthropic for $60 Billion in SpaceX Stock — Analysis
Elon Musk acquired Anysphere, the developer of the popular AI coding tool Cursor, for $60 billion. The deal, paid for with SpaceX shares, was closed just days before the anticipated IPO of Anthropic. This deals a serious blow to one of Anthropic's key revenue sources.
What's the gist? Cursor ran on Anthropic's Claude model. Every engineer writing code through this platform was, in essence, a paying customer of Anthropic "under the hood." The tool is used by a significant portion of Silicon Valley and many engineering teams from the Fortune 500. Its flagship feature, Composer, became one of the most beloved AI products for programmers, and this is directly tied to Claude.
Why Cursor Was So Important to Anthropic
It was with Cursor and Claude that the term "vibe coding" emerged — an approach where a programmer describes a task in plain language, and the AI writes the code. The term was introduced in early 2025 by a researcher experimenting with Composer based on Claude Sonnet.
The connection was also deep financially. Anthropic's corporate revenue surged in 2025, and one reason was that every engineer using Cursor was a paying customer of Anthropic. Cursor became one of the largest external channels for Claude usage across the entire internet.
The most curious aspect is how the payment was made. "Not a single dollar in cash changed hands": all $60 billion was paid for with SpaceX shares. The deal was formalized through an SEC Form 8-K, and Musk exercised an option he had signed back in April.
SpaceX shares appeared on the stock exchange on June 12 at a price of $135 each, and by Tuesday were trading above $211. Musk used a few days of stock market frenzy to "print" $60 billion in fresh capital in the form of shares and immediately spent them on the pre-agreed purchase. SpaceX investors, meanwhile, faced dilution of approximately 3.4% — their stake in the company decreased due to the issuance of new shares. The IPO itself became the printing press for this acquisition.
Why This Is Linked to Anthropic's IPO
According to data from the service Ramp, Cursor's share among corporate clients was declining: from 41% in June 2025 to 26% in May 2026, losing ground to GitHub Copilot and Amazon Q. Investors Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and Nvidia were preparing to invest in Cursor at a $50 billion valuation, considering it aggressive, and Musk paid 20% more — for a company "losing ground in the race."
Musk went through with the deal because his own AI division, xAI, was struggling. To give SpaceX a compelling AI story before going public, the easiest path was to buy a brand that engineers already trust. xAI's problems are confirmed: by the end of March 2026, all 11 of its co-founders had left the company, and Musk himself admitted that xAI was "built incorrectly from the start."
From this, the entire chain is constructed. First, SpaceX went public to obtain "currency" — expensive shares. Then Musk used them to buy Cursor, which was losing its leadership position, and paid a premium to boot. Moreover, Cursor was the largest corporate channel through which companies paid for Claude. And the deal came precisely in the window between Anthropic filing its IPO application and setting the offering price.
My expert analysis: This deal is a masterclass in strategic maneuvering. Musk didn't just buy an asset; he cut off a key monetization channel for his competitor at the most sensitive moment. For Anthropic, losing Cursor is not just a financial hole; it's a loss of market confidence. If the company cannot quickly convince Wall Street that the lost revenue can be replaced, one of the most anticipated AI IPOs this year could be at risk. We are closely watching how Anthropic will build a new strategy. The market does not forgive such blows.