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The market for AI tools for developers is undergoing a tectonic shift. Elon Musk, using SpaceX shares as a currency, acquired Anysphere — the developer of the hugely popular AI coding assistant Cursor. The deal was valued at $60 billion and was closed just days before the anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of the company Anthropic. This is not just a corporate acquisition; it is a strategic maneuver that could reshape the landscape of generative AI.

Cursor: The Invisible Revenue Engine of Anthropic

Cursor has long been one of the largest external monetization channels for Anthropic's Claude model. Every engineer using Cursor to write code was, in essence, a paying customer of Anthropic "under the hood." It was precisely through the integration with Claude that Cursor's Composer feature became the benchmark for "vibe coding" — an approach where a developer describes a task in natural language, and the AI writes the code. This term, incidentally, was coined in early 2025 by a researcher experimenting with Composer based on Claude Sonnet.

Anthropic's corporate revenue surged in 2025, largely thanks to Cursor. This tool became one of the most significant growth drivers for the company preparing for its stock market debut. Now, this channel has come under Musk's control.

The Mechanics of the Deal: How SpaceX Became a "Printing Press"

Notable is not just the amount, but also the method of payment. All $60 billion were paid in SpaceX shares, not cash. After SpaceX went public on June 12 at $135 per share, Musk waited a few days of stock market frenzy, during which the quotes soared above $211. He then initiated an additional issuance of SpaceX shares, diluting existing investors' stakes by approximately 3.4%, and directed these fresh shares to purchase Cursor under a pre-agreed option signed back in April. In effect, the SpaceX IPO itself became the "printing press" for this deal.

Why Did Musk Overpay for Cursor?

Cursor was not the undisputed market leader. According to data from the service Ramp, its share among corporate clients fell from 41% in June 2025 to 26% in May 2026, losing ground to GitHub Copilot and Amazon Q. Investors, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and Nvidia, valued Cursor at $50 billion, considering that figure aggressive. Musk paid 20% more — for a company that, in analysts' opinion, "is losing ground in the race."

The reason lies in the crisis of Musk's own AI division, xAI. 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." To give SpaceX a compelling AI story before entering the public market, the easiest path was to buy a brand that engineers already trust. Cursor became that brand.

A Blow to Anthropic's IPO: An Analyst's Perspective

This entire chain — SpaceX IPO → share issuance → purchase of Cursor — occurred in the critical window between Anthropic filing for its IPO and setting the offering price. Interpreting this as a planned attack on Anthropic's IPO is my professional assessment, not an established fact. However, it has solid grounds.

If Anthropic cannot quickly convince Wall Street that the lost revenue from Cursor can be replaced, one of the most anticipated IPOs in the AI sector this year could be at risk of failure. Musk didn't just buy a company — he cut off the oxygen supply to his main competitor at the most crucial moment.

Expert Opinion: This deal is a brilliant example of "corporate guerrilla warfare." Musk used SpaceX's capitalization as a lever to solve xAI's strategic problem while simultaneously striking a blow against a key competitor. For Anthropic, losing Cursor is not just losing a client; it's losing one of its main arguments in negotiations with investors. The fate of their IPO now directly depends on the company's ability to replace this growth channel in the shortest possible time.