A $60 Billion Deal: How Musk Cut Off Anthropic from a Key Revenue Source Just Before Its IPO
The high-tech market is buzzing with the news of Elon Musk's acquisition of Anysphere, the developer of the popular AI coding tool Cursor. The deal was valued at $60 billion, and notably, the payment was made exclusively in SpaceX shares. This event, occurring just days before the anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of Anthropic, deals a serious blow to one of Musk's competitor's key revenue sources.
Cursor was not just another product on the market. This tool operated on the Claude model from Anthropic. In essence, every engineer who used Cursor for writing code was a paying customer of Anthropic, without even realizing it. The platform was used by a significant portion of Silicon Valley and many engineering teams from the Fortune 500. The flagship Composer feature, powered by Claude Sonnet, became one of the most beloved among programmers, and the term "vibe coding" itself was introduced thanks to this tandem.
Anthropic's corporate revenue surged in 2025, and this was directly linked to Cursor. Every Cursor user was a hidden source of revenue for Anthropic. Musk's purchase of Cursor effectively cuts off this channel. Interestingly, the deal was structured through a regulatory 8-K form, and Musk exercised an option signed back in April. SpaceX shares went public on June 12 at a price of $135 each, and by Tuesday, they were trading above $211. Musk used several days of stock market frenzy to "print" $60 billion in fresh capital in the form of shares and immediately spent them on a pre-agreed purchase. SpaceX shareholders, meanwhile, faced dilution of approximately 3.4%.
Why This is a Blow to Anthropic's IPO
Data from the service Ramp shows that 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 such as Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and Nvidia were ready to invest in Cursor at a valuation of $50 billion, considering it aggressive. Musk, however, paid 20% more for a company that, according to analysts, is already losing its position. This suggests that it was critically important for Musk to acquire this particular asset, even at a premium.
The connection to Anthropic's IPO is clear. SpaceX went public to obtain "currency" for the purchase. Musk spent these shares on Cursor, which was the largest corporate channel for Claude. And the deal fell precisely in the gap between Anthropic filing for its IPO and setting the offering price. 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 be at risk.
Expert opinion: This deal is a brilliant, albeit expensive, move by Musk. He didn't just buy technology; he cut off the oxygen supply to his xAI's main competitor at the most critical moment. Now, Anthropic will have to prove its independence to the market without one of its main growth drivers. For Anthropic investors, this is an alarming signal that could significantly impact the company's valuation at the offering.