Musk bought Cursor for $60 billion in SpaceX stock: a strategic blow to Anthropic ahead of its IPO
Elon Musk has pulled off perhaps one of the biggest tech deals of the year, acquiring Anysphere — the developer of the popular AI coding tool Cursor — for $60 billion. However, the key intrigue lies not in the price tag, but in the payment method and the consequences for Anthropic, one of Musk's main competitors in the artificial intelligence market.
A Deal That Changed the Landscape
The entire sum was paid exclusively in SpaceX shares. Not a single dollar in cash changed hands. Musk capitalized on the stock market frenzy surrounding SpaceX's IPO: the company's shares surged from $135 apiece on June 12 to $211 by the start of the following week. In effect, the IPO itself became the "printing press" for this purchase. SpaceX investors faced a dilution of their stake by approximately 3.4%, as new shares were issued. Musk used a few days of market euphoria to "print" $60 billion in fresh capital in the form of shares and immediately spent them on a pre-agreed acquisition.
Why Cursor Was Critically Important for Anthropic
Cursor is not just a code editor. It is a key monetization channel for Anthropic's models, particularly Claude. Every engineer using Cursor is a paying customer of Anthropic "under the hood." It was thanks to Claude that Cursor's flagship Composer feature became one of the most beloved AI products for programmers. Essentially, Cursor was the largest external corporate channel for using Claude across the entire internet. According to data from Ramp, Cursor's share among corporate clients of AI coding tools declined from 41% in June 2025 to 26% in May 2026, losing ground to GitHub Copilot and Amazon Q. Investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and Nvidia, considered a $50 billion valuation for Cursor aggressive, and Musk paid 20% more for a company that, according to analysts, was losing its competitive edge.
Timeline of the Blow
Musk pursued this deal because his own AI division, xAI, was facing serious difficulties. 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." Instead of spending time and resources fixing the mistakes, Musk simply bought a brand that engineers already trust. First, SpaceX went public to obtain "currency" — expensive shares. Then Musk used them to purchase Cursor, which was losing its leadership position, and at a premium. And Cursor, in turn, was the largest corporate channel through which companies paid for Claude. The deal came precisely in the window between Anthropic filing for its IPO and setting the offering price.
Expert Opinion
From my perspective, this is a classic example of "strategic interception" in a fiercely competitive environment. Musk didn't just buy a company — he stripped Anthropic of its most powerful and visible revenue driver right before its public market debut. Now, Anthropic must quickly convince Wall Street that the lost revenue from Cursor will be replaced by something else. If it fails, one of the most anticipated AI IPOs this year could face serious jeopardy. The market will be watching closely to see how Anthropic responds to this challenge.