Deal of the Century: How Musk Intercepted Anthropic’s Key Client with $60 Billion in SpaceX Stock Just Before the IPO
The market for AI developer tools has experienced a tectonic shift. Elon Musk, using SpaceX shares as a payment method, acquired Anysphere — the creator of the popular AI coding tool Cursor — for $60 billion. The deal was closed in record time, literally just days before Anthropic, one of the main competitors in the large language model space, was set to go public. This is not just an acquisition, but a strategic strike that reshapes the balance of power ahead of one of the most anticipated IPOs in the tech sector.
Cursor: Anthropic's "Gold Mine" Under Threat
Cursor has long been the flagship product for "vibe coding" — an approach where a developer describes a task in natural language, and the AI generates the code. Cursor's key feature was its deep integration with Anthropic's Claude model. Essentially, every engineer using Cursor became a paying customer of Anthropic "under the hood." This tool gained immense popularity in Silicon Valley: a significant portion of engineering teams from the Fortune 500 and top startups actively used Cursor, and its Composer feature became one of the most beloved AI products among programmers.
According to data from the service Ramp, Cursor's share among corporate clients was indeed declining — from 41% in June 2025 to 26% in May 2026, losing ground to GitHub Copilot and Amazon Q. However, this does not negate the fact that Cursor remained one of the largest external monetization channels for Claude. Losing such a source of revenue is a serious blow to Anthropic's financial metrics, especially on the eve of its IPO.
Deal Mechanics and Hidden Motives
The most notable aspect of this deal is the payment method. Not a single dollar in cash: all $60 billion was paid with SpaceX shares. Musk used the SpaceX IPO, which took place on June 12, to "print" new capital. SpaceX shares soared from $135 to $211 apiece in a matter of days, allowing Musk to generate the necessary sum. SpaceX investors, meanwhile, faced dilution of approximately 3.4%.
Why did Musk pursue such an aggressive deal, paying a 20% premium over the $50 billion valuation previously agreed upon by Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and Nvidia? The answer lies in the problems of his 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 is not just an acquisition of technology, but a purchase of the trust of millions of developers. It's a ready-made brand and audience that xAI was unable to create on its own.
What This Means for Anthropic
The connection here is direct and harsh. First, SpaceX goes public to obtain "currency" — expensive shares. Then, Musk uses them to buy Cursor, which was losing its leadership but was still the largest corporate sales channel for Claude. And all of this happens in the narrow time window between Anthropic filing for its IPO and setting the offering price.
It's important to understand: this is not just a coincidence, but a planned attack on a key competitor. By removing Cursor from Anthropic's ecosystem, Musk struck at their revenue and, critically, at their narrative for investors. Now, Anthropic will have to convince Wall Street in a compressed timeframe that the lost revenue from Cursor is not a catastrophe, but a temporary phenomenon that can be compensated for through other channels.
My analysis: This deal is a brilliant, albeit cynical, move. Musk didn't just buy a company; he bought time and leverage over a competitor. For Anthropic, the situation is critical: losing such a large and loyal customer right before entering the public market is a severe reputational and financial blow. The success of their IPO now directly depends on the team's ability to quickly present a convincing growth story without relying on the "trump card" of Cursor. If they fail, one of the year's most anticipated offerings could be in serious jeopardy.