Elon Musk intercepted Anthropic's key client on the eve of its IPO: strategy or coincidence?
Elon Musk has executed one of the most high-profile deals in the AI market, acquiring Anysphere — the developer of the popular programming tool Cursor. The deal was valued at $60 billion, and notably, the payment was made in SpaceX shares. This acquisition took place just days before the anticipated IPO of Anthropic, and as analysis shows, it directly impacted one of the key revenue sources of this AI giant.
Cursor was not just one of many products on the market. It operated on Anthropic's Claude model, and every engineer using the platform to write code was, in essence, a paying customer of Anthropic "under the hood." The tool became so popular that it was used by a significant portion of Silicon Valley and many engineering teams from the Fortune 500. The flagship feature, Composer, built on Claude Sonnet, became one of the most beloved AI products for programmers. It is with Cursor and Claude that the term "vibe coding" is associated — an approach where a programmer describes a task in words, and the AI writes the code.
The financial link between Cursor and Anthropic was deep. Anthropic's corporate revenue surged in 2025, and one of the key drivers of this growth was Cursor. Every Cursor user generating code brought money to Anthropic. Cursor became one of the largest external channels for using Claude across the entire internet.
How the deal went down: SpaceX shares as currency
The most curious aspect is the payment mechanism. Not a single dollar in cash was involved in the deal: all $60 billion were paid in SpaceX shares. Musk used the stock market frenzy following SpaceX's IPO to "print" $60 billion in fresh capital in the form of shares and immediately spend them on a pre-agreed purchase. SpaceX investors faced dilution of approximately 3.4%, as their stake in the company decreased due to the issuance of new shares. In essence, the SpaceX IPO itself became the printing press for this acquisition.
Connection to Anthropic's IPO: coincidence or strategy?
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 aggressive, while Musk paid 20% more — for a company that, according to analysts, "is losing ground in the race."
Ricardo, a well-known analyst in finance and technology, believes Musk went through with the deal because his own AI division, xAI, was experiencing serious difficulties. For SpaceX to have a compelling AI story 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. Moreover, Cursor was the largest corporate channel through which companies paid for Claude. And the deal fell precisely in the gap 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 analyst's personal assessment, not an established fact. However, much depends on Anthropic's next move. If the company cannot quickly convince Wall Street that the lost revenue from Cursor can be replaced, then one of the most anticipated AI IPOs this year could be at risk.
Expert opinion: The purchase of Cursor is not just "poaching a client." It is a demonstration that in the AI era, control over infrastructure becomes more important than control over the model. Musk didn't just buy a product; he bought a distribution channel that directly competes with Anthropic. For the crypto market, this is a signal: projects that control user experience and infrastructure may have higher strategic value than the AI models themselves.