SpaceX moves ahead with $60 billion Cursor deal

SpaceX will proceed with its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, the AI coding assistant made by San Francisco startup Anysphere, as Elon Musk’s space exploration and AI company looks for an edge against Anthropic and OpenAI after its Wall Street debut last week.

SpaceX said in April that it had the rights to buy Cursor, or pay $10 billion to “work together” with the company. In a regulatory filing Tuesday, SpaceX said Cursor will become a wholly owned subsidiary when the deal closes in the third quarter. Cursor’s wide distribution to expert software engineers was described by SpaceX as a likely factor in the startup’s appeal.

Cursor started in 2022 and helped spark “vibe coding” as AI coding assistants became more capable of programming work. Cursor said its partnership with SpaceX subsidiary xAI would enable future products using xAI’s Colossus data center complex in Memphis, Tennessee. SpaceX became a public company on Friday, and its shares were up 9% before the opening bell Tuesday.