TL;DR
SpaceX exercised its option on June 16 to buy Anysphere, maker of Cursor, for $60 billion in stock, according to the source material. The deal would give SpaceX a profitable AI coding app and developer distribution, while the performance of Grok remains the central test.
SpaceX exercised its option on June 16 to buy Anysphere, the maker of the AI coding agent Cursor, for $60 billion in stock, according to the provided source material, a deal that would give SpaceX control of a revenue-generating AI application at the same time it is trying to prove that its Grok models can compete at the foundation layer.
The deal is described as an all-stock acquisition, with Cursor shares converting into SpaceX Class A shares. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, after which Cursor would become a wholly owned SpaceX subsidiary.
The source material says SpaceX had previously secured an option to buy Cursor for $60 billion or pay a $10 billion alternative fee. By exercising the option, SpaceX is buying a product with a large developer user base, a model team and reported annualized revenue of about $4 billion by early June, up from about $2 billion in February.
Some of the broader claims in the source are analytical rather than deal terms. The core interpretation is that SpaceX now has assets across the AI stack: on-site power, Colossus compute clusters, xAI research, Grok models, Cursor’s application layer, and distribution through X, Tesla, Optimus and Cursor’s developers.
SpaceX owns every layer
of AI now
The $60B Cursor buy completes the stack: power, compute, research, model, app, distribution. But owning every layer isn’t winning every layer — and the model is the weak one.
(Anysphere)
You can buy a coding app and a model team. You can’t buy the research lead that makes your foundation model the one everyone else builds on — which is why Anthropic pays Musk $1.25B/month, not the other way around. Owning every layer bought SpaceX the right to attempt the hard thing. It hasn’t done it yet.
Cursor Brings Paying AI Users
The acquisition matters because Cursor sits in one of the few AI software categories where businesses are already paying at scale: coding tools. SpaceX has spent heavily on compute and power, but Cursor gives it an application with direct revenue and an existing base of developers.
That changes the shape of SpaceX’s AI bet. Instead of only selling access to compute or pushing Grok through its own products, SpaceX would own a tool that developers already use for daily work. The reported plan to ship a co-trained model into Cursor and Grok Build would test whether SpaceX can connect infrastructure scale to a product customers prefer.
The source material frames the weak point as the model layer. Owning data centers, power and distribution gives SpaceX leverage, but it does not prove Grok can outperform or match rivals from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google.
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How SpaceX Filled The Stack
The Cursor move follows a rapid buildout of SpaceX-linked AI infrastructure. The source material says xAI was folded into SpaceX in February 2026, bringing the Grok model line and research team under the same corporate structure as the Colossus compute program.
Colossus is presented as SpaceX’s strongest layer. The source cites a Memphis buildout of roughly 555,000 Nvidia GPUs, about 2 gigawatts of power capacity and on-site gas generation built faster than utility interconnection timelines. It also says the first 100,000-GPU cluster was built in 122 days.
The application layer was the missing piece. Cursor, founded in 2022 by four MIT graduates, had reportedly rejected prior interest from OpenAI and Microsoft. The source says Cursor had already trained its newest model on tens of thousands of xAI chips, while two senior Cursor engineers had moved to xAI before the acquisition.
“the world’s most useful AI models”
— Cursor CEO Michael Truell
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Grok’s Lead Is Unproven
It is not yet clear whether the co-trained model promised for Cursor and Grok Build will improve performance enough to change developer behavior. The source material says Grok has underdelivered relative to SpaceX’s compute scale, but it does not provide independent benchmark results for the upcoming model.
Several reported figures also depend on filings, media reports or internal documents cited by the source, including utilization levels, lease revenue and full Colossus costs. The deal’s closing conditions, possible regulatory review and post-close leadership structure were not detailed in the provided material.
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Q3 Close And Model Release
The next formal milestone is the expected Q3 2026 close. After that, Cursor is expected to operate as a wholly owned SpaceX subsidiary.
The product test will come sooner if the co-trained model ships into Cursor and Grok Build as described. Investors, developers and AI rivals will be watching whether Cursor’s revenue growth holds, whether Grok gains measurable ground, and whether SpaceX continues leasing unused Colossus capacity to outside AI labs.
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Key Questions
What did SpaceX buy?
SpaceX agreed to buy Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, in a $60 billion all-stock deal, according to the source material.
Why is Cursor valuable to SpaceX?
Cursor brings a paid AI coding product, a developer user base and a model team. The source says Cursor was running at about $4 billion in annualized revenue by early June.
Does this make SpaceX the AI leader?
The deal strengthens SpaceX’s position across AI infrastructure and applications, but the source frames model quality as the unresolved issue. Grok still has to prove it can lead at the foundation layer.
What is Colossus being used for?
The source says Grok training moved to Colossus 2 after xAI struggled to parallelize training on the mixed Colossus 1 build. It also says remaining Colossus 1 capacity was leased to Anthropic and Google.
What happens after the deal closes?
Cursor is expected to become a SpaceX subsidiary, with a co-trained model planned for Cursor and Grok Build. The key test will be whether that model improves the product enough to sustain developer adoption.
Source: Thorsten Meyer AI
