Elon Musk intercepted Anthropic's key client ahead of IPO: a strategic breakdown of the deal with Cursor
Elon Musk acquired Anysphere — the developer of the popular AI coding tool Cursor — for $60 billion, paying with SpaceX shares. The deal closed in just days before Anthropic filed for its IPO. This move deals a serious blow to one of Anthropic's key revenue sources.
Why Cursor Was Important to Anthropic
Cursor ran on the 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 among programmers — precisely because of Claude. It is with Cursor and Claude that the term "vibe coding" originated — an approach where a programmer describes a task in plain language, and the AI writes the code.
The connection ran deep, also financially. Anthropic's corporate revenue surged in 2025 partly because every engineer using Cursor was a paying customer of Anthropic "under the hood." Cursor became one of the largest external channels for Claude usage across the entire internet.
The Deal Mechanics: How Musk "Printed" $60 Billion
The most curious aspect is how the payment was made. Not a single dollar in cash changed hands: all $60 billion was paid in 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 debuted on the stock exchange on June 12 at $135 each, and by Tuesday 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 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.
Connection to Anthropic's IPO: Coincidence or Planned Attack?
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 already aggressive, yet Musk paid 20% more — for a company that, according to analysts, was losing its position in the race.
Musk went through with the deal because his own AI division, xAI, was struggling. To give SpaceX a compelling AI narrative 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 emerges. 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. Furthermore, Cursor was the largest corporate channel through which companies paid for Claude. And the deal came precisely in the window between Anthropic filing for its IPO and setting the offering price.
It is important to understand: interpreting all this as a planned attack on Anthropic's IPO is the personal assessment of analysts, not an established fact. Sources confirm the events themselves, but not the intent to specifically harm Anthropic.
My Expert Commentary: This case is a brilliant example of how, in the era of AI races, control over distribution becomes more important than control over the technology itself. Musk didn't just buy a product — he cut off the oxygen supply to one of his main competitors at the most sensitive moment. If Anthropic cannot quickly convince Wall Street that it has something to replace the lost revenue from Cursor, one of the most anticipated AI IPOs of the year could face serious jeopardy.