SpaceX Acquires AI Coding Startup Cursor for $60 Billion

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is buying the startup behind the AI-powered coding app Cursor for $60bn (£44bn) and has moved ahead of Amazon in valuation days after its stock market debut.

The company has agreed to buy Anysphere, which has capitalised on AI’s success as a coding technology.

SpaceX is the parent of Musk’s AI business xAI, which will be able to boost its capabilities in an area – AI systems writing code – that has proven to be a strong commercial success for Anthropic, the rival company behind the Claude chatbot.

The news was announced as SpaceX passed Amazon in market capitalisation, an important measure of value for a publicly listed company. SpaceX was worth just under $2.8tn after its shares rose by 13% on opening on the Nasdaq index on Tuesday, overtaking Amazon’s $2.66tn to become the world’s fifth most valuable company by market value.

SpaceX floated at $135 a share on Friday and its shares have risen by approximately 60% since. The float made Musk, SpaceX’s founder and chief executive, the world’s first trillionaire. The 54-year-old is now worth $1.27tn, according to Bloomberg.

SpaceX had been circling Cursor for months. It said in April it had secured an option to ‌either buy the San Francisco-based firm for $60bn later this year or pay $10bn for a partnership.

Cursor will be paid in stock under the deal, a regulatory filing showed, and the deal will not use proceeds from SpaceX’s IPO. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.