SpaceX has agreed to acquire Anysphere, the maker of artificial intelligence coding platform Cursor, in a $60 billion all-stock deal announced on Tuesday, strengthening its push into enterprise AI just days after its record-breaking stock market debut.

The acquisition follows SpaceX’s Nasdaq listing on 12 June, which valued the company at more than $2 trillion and raised $85.7 billion, making it the largest initial public offering on record. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, with Cursor shareholders receiving SpaceX stock rather than cash.

According to Reuters, the transaction will bolster the AI ambitions of xAI, Elon Musk’s chatbot business, which merged with SpaceX earlier this year. AI-powered coding tools have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the artificial intelligence market, helping software developers generate, edit and review code.

Cursor, founded in 2022, has grown rapidly and generated roughly $2.6 billion in annualised business-to-business revenue, according to company data previously shared with Reuters. The startup had reportedly been exploring a fundraising round that would have valued the company at $50 billion.

SpaceX said in a statement that: “We look forward to working closely with the Cursor team to advance our frontier AI capabilities.” CNBC reported that the company views the acquisition as a way to strengthen its position against rivals OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which offer competing coding assistants.

SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC that the Cursor partnership “makes a huge amount of sense”. In April, SpaceX secured the right either to acquire Cursor for $60 billion or continue a strategic partnership worth $10 billion.

BBC News reported that Cursor is used by major corporate customers including Stripe, Adobe and Nvidia. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has described the product as his “favourite enterprise AI service”.

Reuters reported that SpaceX shares rose nearly 10 per cent in pre-market trading following the announcement, putting the company on course to add about $247 billion to its market value. The stock has climbed more than 56 per cent since its IPO price of $135, reflecting investor optimism about the company’s expansion into artificial intelligence despite ongoing losses linked to heavy infrastructure spending.

Regulatory filings show SpaceX would owe a $10 billion termination fee if the deal collapses under certain conditions and a further $4 billion fee if antitrust obstacles prevent completion.

---