Elon Musk intercepted a key Anthropic client ahead of the IPO: the anatomy of the $60 billion deal with Cursor
The AI market was shaken by news that directly affects the interests of one of the key players — Anthropic. We are talking about Elon Musk's acquisition of Anysphere, the developer of the popular code-writing tool Cursor. The deal amounted to $60 billion, and what is particularly noteworthy is that the payment was made using SpaceX shares, without any cash.
How Cursor Became a "Gold Mine" for Claude
Cursor is not just another AI assistant. Thanks to its deep integration with Anthropic's Claude model, this product has become one of the main monetization channels for the latter. Every engineer using Cursor to write code was, in essence, a paying customer of Anthropic "under the hood." The Composer feature became especially popular, giving rise to the term "vibe coding" — an approach where a developer describes a task in words, and the AI writes the code. According to analysts, it was Cursor and Claude that drove the sharp growth in Anthropic's corporate revenue in 2025.
The Mechanics of the Deal: IPO as a Money Printer
The most interesting aspect is the payment method. Musk did not spend a single dollar out of his own pocket. First, SpaceX conducted an IPO, during which the company's shares surged from $135 to $211 per share. This allowed "printing" $60 billion in new shares, which were immediately used to purchase Cursor. In essence, SpaceX investors financed the deal, facing a dilution of their stakes by approximately 3.4%. The process itself became a classic example of using the public market as a "money printer" for acquiring assets.
Why This Is a Blow to Anthropic
The connection here is direct and painful for Anthropic. Cursor was one of the largest external distribution channels for the Claude model. Its loss means losing a significant and, critically, corporate source of revenue. Although Cursor's share of the AI coding market was declining (from 41% in June 2025 to 26% in May 2026, trailing GitHub Copilot and Amazon Q), it remained an important asset. Musk's purchase of the company at a 20% premium to the $50 billion valuation given by Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and Nvidia looks like a strategic move.
Musk's Motives and Risks for Anthropic
My analysis shows that this deal is not just an investment, but part of a broader strategy by Musk. His own AI division, xAI, is facing serious difficulties: 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." Buying Cursor is a way to quickly gain the trust of the engineering community and a brand they already use. For SpaceX, it is also an opportunity to present a compelling AI story ahead of its public market debut.
The key question now is: can Anthropic quickly find an equivalent replacement for the lost revenue from Cursor? If not, one of the most anticipated IPOs in the AI sector this year could be under serious threat. Losing such a client on the eve of a listing is a signal that Wall Street cannot ignore.
My expert opinion: This is a brilliant, albeit aggressive, move by Musk. He didn't just buy technology; he cut off one of the key sales channels for a competitor (Anthropic) at the worst possible time for them. For Anthropic, this is a test of the strength of their business model and their ability to diversify revenue. The market will be watching their next move closely.