SpaceX says it's working with Cursor to build “the world's most useful models” and it has the right to acquire Cursor for $60B or pay $10B for the partnership

The potential acquisition comes as Elon Musk's rocket and satellite maker, which has been emphasizing artificial intelligence, is preparing to go public.

New York Times 2026-04-22

Discussion

@spacex @spacex on x
SpaceXAI and @cursor_ai are now working closely together to create the world's best coding and knowledge work AI. The combination of Cursor's leading product and distribution to expert software engineers with SpaceX's million H100 equivalent Colossus training supercomputer will …
@mntruell Michael Truell on x
Excited to partner with the SpaceX team to scale up Composer. A meaningful step on our path to build the best place to code with AI.
@0xrwu Richard Wu on x
The structure of the deal is pretty interesting here. I think what's happening is: 1. xAI is having trouble training a SOTA coding model (hence cofounder departures), bunch of idle GPUs 2. Cursor doesn't have capital to blow on a $5B training run to compete with Codex/Claude 3.
@teddyschleifer Teddy Schleifer on x
Don't often see a $50 billion acquisition just before an IPO https://www.nytimes.com/...
@unhedgedchatter @unhedgedchatter on x
Everything is tokens.
@benjamindekr Benjamin De Kraker on x
Is Cursor really worth 4% of SpaceX's entire (projected) IPO value?
@benjamindekr Benjamin De Kraker on x
What exactly is valuable inside Cursor here that justifies $60 Billion? Or is it an acquihire, using Cursor staff to build back the gutted xAI?
@stocksavvyshay Shay Boloor on x
Why is SpaceX buying Cursor for $60B? The two scarcest assets in the AI economy are distribution and compute. Cursor has one of the largest captive developer audiences in AI coding while SpaceX owns Colossus which is one of the largest AI compute clusters on the planet. That [ima…
@michaelnicollsx Michael Nicolls on x
Excited to partner with @cursor_ai!
@aaronburnett Aaron Burnett on x
I think xAI is going to be just fine. Starlink business as a foundation with ODCs and AI (consumer and enterprise) on top. FWIW, Cursor IDE gets a lot of use from our devs internally.
@scaling01 @scaling01 on x
“Cursor has also given SpaceX [xAI] the right to acquire Cursor later this year for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for our work together” as expected. without coding data you are cooked.
@tanayj Tanay Jaipuria on x
My read on the structure of this deal: 1. xAI is leveraging Cursor's data / traces to help train a better coding model (both Grok base model and post-trained Composer model) 2. xAI also has a bunch of idle GPUs which Cursor can put to use 3. If training runs go well and SpaceX
@bearlyai @bearlyai on x
“Cursor has given SpaceX the right to acquire Cursor later this year for $60B or pay $10B for our work together.” Makes so much sense. xAI hired two Cursor co-founders and needs a product to utilize Colossus, world's largest data centre (equivalent 1 million H100 chips). [image]
@edzitron Ed Zitron on x
what the hell does this mean? [image]
@nmasc_ Natasha Mascarenhas on x
XAI and Cursor merger has been a rumor for months. I last wrote about the two companies deepening relationship and attempted partnership in September -> https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@realjimchanos James Chanos on x
Um, isn't that why @SpaceX “bought” xAI for $250B...?!
@luke_metro @luke_metro on x
so that's why my cursor agent started going off about white genocide in South Africa
@alexfinn Alex Finn on x
Wow. SpaceX/xAI to potentially buy Cursor this year for 60 billion $ This makes SO much sense xAI has been behind on coding products for years now Cursor has a great coding product, but will fail unless they build their own model xAI gets an incredible coding product. Cursor
@kevinakwok Kevin Kwok on x
Since both companies announced compute deal I have been wondering if the actual terms looked more like this. It's a very elegant solution to both their problems, make so much sense
@redtachyon Ariel on x
Incredibly bearish for Cursor. But I guess it checks out after their lunch was stolen by Clodex
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
NEWS: SpaceX said to agree to the right to buy cursor for $60 billion this year w @eringriffith @RMac18 https://www.nytimes.com/...
@jason @jason on x
🔥 wow! Very strategic and bold move colossus is a super weapon for SpaceX already — can you imagine when it scale to the the stars?!?
@dchaplot Devendra Chaplot on x
Excited to work with the incredible team at Cursor
@yuchenj_uw Yuchen Jin on x
Turns out, copying & pasting your entire source file into a Grok chatbox works a lot worse than just using Cursor. [image]
@jeffwsurf Jeff Wang on x
Congrats on @cursor_ai's acquisiton by @SpaceX and @xai Really glad this ended up being a real acquisition!
@luke_metro @luke_metro on x
The SpaceX/Cursor deal really does make it weirder that Optimus and Autopilot are still part of a different company
@metacriticcap @metacriticcap on x
It'll be interesting to see whether Anthropic and OpenAI cut Cursor's access to their models. They almost certainly have a change of control clause. Likely reason why this deal is structured in this way.
@chooserich Nick O'Neill on x
Buying Cursor for $60 billion seems like the most overvalued acquisition ever This is more than Elon spent acquiring X
@austen Austen Allred on x
OK this could actually work. Makes much more sense than Cursor trying to train its own models in house.
@zeffmax Max Zeff on x
Cursor has been trying to compete with the AI labs for the last year. Now, after turning down previous acquisition offers, it may be joining one.
@pitdesi Sheel Mohnot on x
wow - SpaceX either acquires Cursor for $60B or pays Cursor $10B for their work together. I did not see that coming. What a wild ride.
@stocksavvyshay Shay Boloor on x
SpaceX says it has the right to acquire Cursor later this year for $60B or alternatively pay $10B tied to the partnership. The companies say pairing Cursor's software engineer distribution with SpaceX's Colossus compute would help them build “the world's most useful models.” [ima…
M Mohan M Mohan on linkedin
In other news of the day. Cursor said SpaceX has the option to buy it by year end for $50B or $10B breakup fee. — But the fun news. …
@seldo.com Laurie Voss on bluesky
“As a rocket ship company, it's very important that we own an AI company and also a social media company and also an IDE that nobody uses any more” — www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/b...
@seanokane Sean O'Kane on bluesky
Musk used his money pit space company to buy his bigger money pit AI company that he merged with his money pit social media company and is going to IPO them all to raise cash to buy another AI company because he gutted the money pit AI company (which is a money pit) — www.nytim…
r/technology r on reddit
SpaceX Strikes Deal With Cursor for $60 Billion
r/spacex r on reddit
SpaceX to acquire AI company Cursor for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for their “work together”
@self.agency Daniel Sieradski on bluesky
i've tried a lot of coding agents but i've never tried cursor and now i never will
@akhilrao @akhilrao on bluesky
wonder what they're doing together worth $10B
r/technology r on reddit
SpaceX says it can buy Cursor later this year for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for ‘our work together’
r/cursor r on reddit
SpaceX says it can buy Cursor later this year for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for ‘our work together’
@virtuistic @virtuistic on bluesky
He's “de-emphasized” his ridiculous lies in order to try to make AI money off his rocket-exploding failure, you mean?
@quinnypig Corey Quinn on x
Perhaps I should not trust the electric car rocket ship shitposting company with my corporate IP just yet.
@argofowl @argofowl on x
my main takeaways from core memory's “the great reset at openai” — ep 67 with sam altman and greg brockman: > greg framed openai's operating edge as the pairing of sam's “grand ambition” with execution discipline: sam keeps raising the target, and greg keeps forcing focus back
@validapau Valida Pau on x
NEW SpaceX and xAI numbers: SpaceX debt load at the end of 2025 jumped from 14B to 23B. Much is tied to a lease deal Valor Equity Partners for xAI. It doubled its cash pile to 25B, largely because it absorbed cash from xAI. w/ @coryweinberg 🧙‍♂️🪄 [image]
NewsMax.com Glenn Chapman on x
SpaceX Gets $60B Option to Buy AI Startup Cursor
@owenthomas Owen Thomas on x
Vinyaaasa. #transbaygym cc @alex @edzitron @Kazanjy @amynw https://www.mapmyfitness.com/ ...
@chamath Chamath Palihapitiya on x
The game theory in AI has shifted. Having a leading foundational model is important but increasingly it is the zoning approved, powered land that is the gating bottleneck. Add turnkey access to silicon and it's checkmate. If you have that, you have immense negotiating leverage
@rmac Ryan Mac on bluesky
Tired: landing humans on Mars by 2026 — Wired: Orbital data centers! Self-sustaining moon colony! AI chip factory! $60B deals for AI companies! — In the last 6 months, Musk has completely changed the direction of SpaceX. He's hoping investors will go along for the ride: w…
Molly Fowler Molly Fowler on linkedin
Big day for DRF alum Michael T. and the Cursor team, who announced a deal with SpaceX for a potential $60 billion acquisition later this year. …
@karlbode.com Karl Bode on bluesky
These dueling OpenAI and Space X IPO “CEO said a thing!” newscycles are going to be very very annoying [embedded post]

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SpaceX says it's working with Cursor to build “the world's most useful models” and it has the right to acquire Cursor for $60B or pay $10B for the partnership

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