SpaceX has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Cursor, in a transaction that values the AI coding startup at $60 billion.
Cursor investors will be entitled to receive SpaceX stock based on an implied valuation of $60 billion, according to a document released by the company on Tuesday morning, June 16. The merger is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2026.
The operation connects directly to the group's AI division, xAI, which is currently focused on strengthening its coding capabilities with artificial intelligence.
The move, which comes days after SpaceX's listing on Nasdaq, aims to reduce the gap in programming tools compared to its main rivals in programming language models. According to Elon Musk himself, xAI fell behind its competitors precisely in this area and had been recruiting engineers from Cursor to try to catch up with players like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Launched in 2023, Cursor's AI assistant was designed to help programmers write and debug code more efficiently.
The startup had been experiencing strong growth and had become a leading tool for building software from natural language commands sent to a chatbot.
Before SpaceX announced its intention to buy, Cursor was negotiating a funding round of approximately US$2 billion with investors, at a valuation exceeding US$50 billion, according to Bloomberg . With the merger, the startup abandoned this plan, with xAI now funding its future computing capacity needs.
SpaceX had already revealed in April that it had secured the right to buy Cursor this year, but had been holding off on the operation while awaiting its IPO, which took place last week on Nasdaq – the largest in history . The company raised approximately US$85.7 billion in the operation (after an additional allotment).
SpaceX takes off on the stock market.
Since its listing on the stock exchange on Friday, June 12, SpaceX shares have soared – rising approximately 19% on its debut and its second day of trading. This strong appreciation has catapulted the company's market value to nearly US$2.5 trillion.
At the start of its third day of trading, SpaceX shares are up 3.5% in pre-market trading. If this increase is confirmed, the company is expected to surpass Amazon's market capitalization, becoming the fifth most valuable company in the world, behind Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, and Nvidia.
Musk's bets on AI, however, have taken their toll. SpaceX reported a net loss of $4.94 billion last year after retroactively taking on debt from its xAI investments. Capital expenditures (capex) nearly doubled to $20.7 billion, with most of the spending directed towards artificial intelligence.
