SpaceX cuts a deal to maybe buy Cursor for $60 billion

With a SpaceX IPO around the corner.

With an IPO looming for Elon Musk’s SpaceX / xAI / X combo platter of companies, SpaceX has announced an odd arrangement to either acquire the automated programming platform Cursor for $60 billion or pay a fee of $10 billion. Buying this startup that’s focused on AI coding could help xAI’s tools compete with market leader Anthropic, as well as the other competitors. A report by The Information this week said Sergey Brin has directed Google’s “strike team” to help its agentic AI tools catch up, while Sam Altman reportedly declared a “code red” at OpenAI last year before shutting down Sora to focus on the ChatGPT superapp and its own Codex tool.

The New York Times first reported a possible deal Tuesday evening, and SpaceX confirmed it in a tweet.

Breakup fees aren’t unusual for a proposed acquisition, but pitching this as “$10 billion for our work together” on AI is. CNBC and Bloomberg have reported that Musk values his combined X companies at $1.25 trillion, and CNBC reported a few days ago that Cursor was in the process of raising $2 billion in funding at a valuation of $50 billion.