Analysis: Why Musk's Purchase of Cursor is a Blow to Anthropic's IPO
Elon Musk has pulled off perhaps one of the most striking deals of the year: for $60 billion, he acquired Anysphere — the company behind the popular AI coding tool Cursor. The payment was made using SpaceX shares. This deal, closed just days before Anthropic's stock market debut, carries deep strategic implications that could significantly impact the upcoming IPO.
Cursor was not just another startup. It operated on the basis of Anthropic's Claude model. In essence, every engineer using Cursor became a paying customer of Anthropic "under the hood." The tool became one of the largest external monetization channels for Claude, especially in the corporate segment — it is used by a significant portion of Silicon Valley and engineering teams from the Fortune 500. The flagship Composer feature, which became synonymous with "vibe coding," was built specifically on Claude Sonnet.
The connection proved to be deep in monetary terms as well. Anthropic's corporate revenue surged in 2025, and Cursor was one of the key drivers of this growth. Every new Cursor user is, in effect, a new paying customer for Anthropic. Now this channel is lost.
Deal Mechanics and the Blow to Anthropic
The most notable aspect is how the payment was conducted. Not a single dollar in cash. All $60 billion were paid in SpaceX shares. Musk used the SpaceX IPO as a "printing press": shares went public at $135, and within a few days were trading above $211. He issued new shares, diluting the stake of existing investors by approximately 3.4%, and immediately directed them toward the purchase of Cursor.
Why is this a blow to Anthropic? Because Cursor was their largest corporate sales channel. According to data from the service Ramp, Cursor's share among corporate clients of AI coding tools was declining (from 41% in June 2025 to 26% in May 2026), losing ground to GitHub Copilot and Amazon Q. Even investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive valued Cursor at $50 billion, considering this valuation aggressive. Musk paid 20% more for a company that, as analysts note, "is losing ground in the race."
But the main factor is the timing. The deal fell precisely in the interval between Anthropic filing for its IPO and setting the offering price. Now Anthropic will have to convince Wall Street that the lost revenue from Cursor can be replaced. If the company cannot quickly demonstrate alternative growth drivers, one of the most anticipated IPOs in the AI sector this year could be at risk.
Expert opinion: This deal is a brilliant tactical move by Musk. He didn't just buy an asset he needs for xAI and SpaceX. He delivered a preemptive strike against a competitor at the most vulnerable moment — right before the IPO. For Anthropic, losing Cursor is not just losing a client; it is losing key proof of market demand for their technology. Now their growth story for investors has become significantly less compelling.