SpaceX is officially buying Cursor for $60 billion

SpaceX announced it is acquiring AI coding platform Cursor for $60 billion, aiming to bolster its enterprise AI capabilities and compete with rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI. The deal, expected to close in Q3 2026, follows SpaceX's recent IPO and addresses Elon Musk's dissatisfaction with xAI's coding tools.

Days after its massive IPO /business/948996/spacex-ipo-elon-musk , SpaceX says it is spending $60 billion to buy Cursor — a bet designed to help Elon Musk’s sprawling rocket / AI / social media behemoth win over lucrative enterprise customers and close the gap with AI rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI. SpaceX is officially buying Cursor for $60 billion Fresh off its blockbuster IPO, Musk’s company wants to catch up to OpenAI and Anthropic in enterprise AI. Fresh off its blockbuster IPO, Musk’s company wants to catch up to OpenAI and Anthropic in enterprise AI. The takeover was not entirely unexpected: SpaceX announced a peculiar arrangement /science/916427/spacex-cursor-potential-deal-acquisition in April in which it agreed to either acquire the programming platform for $60 billion or pay a $10 billion breakup fee. The company had been holding off completing the deal while going public. In an SEC filing https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026043411/spaceexplorationtechnologi.htm , SpaceX said it expects the deal to close during the third quarter of 2026. Musk has previously expressed his frustration https://www.ft.com/content/e5fbc6c2-d5a6-4b97-a105-6a96ea849de5?syn-25a6b1a6=1 with xAI’s sub-par coding product, which lags behind popular tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code /report/874308/anthropic-claude-code-opus-hype-moment and OpenAI’s Codex /ai-artificial-intelligence/913034/openai-codex-updates-use-macos . Acquiring Cursor, which offers similar tools to automate coding, could help close the gap. The startup has grown explosively in recent years amid booming demand for more efficient programming tools and a shift toward “ vibe coding /tech/928905/vibe-code-personal-software-revolution ” in the industry. Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.