MarketsEquity MarketsMergers & acquisitionsPrint articleLynn DoanJun 16, 2026 – 10.37pmSpaceX has formally agreed to take over Cursor in a deal that values the AI coding startup at $US60 billion ($85 billion), cementing a key part of Elon Musk’s efforts to catch up with rivals on coding tools.Cursor investors will have the right to receive SpaceX stock based on the implied $60 billion equity value of the startup, according to a company filing made on Tuesday.SpaceX has continued its strong showing after its blockbuster IPO. BloombergThe merger is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026. SpaceX first revealed in April that it had secured the right to buy Cursor later this year but was holding off because of the rocket company’s initial public offering.SpaceX is pushing ahead with the Cursor transaction just days after completing the highly-anticipated IPO. The stock has surged since its trading debut on Friday, underscoring continued strong demand from investors seeking to tap into the company’s growth prospects.SpaceX’s xAI business is now focused on bolstering its artificial intelligence-powered coding capabilities. Musk himself has said xAI lags behind rivals on that front in particular and had been recruiting engineers from Cursor in an effort to catch up with the likes of Anthropic PBC and OpenAI.AdvertisementCursor’s AI assistant, launched in 2023, is designed to help programmers write and debug code more efficiently. It’s become one of the fastest-growing startups of all time and a central player in tech’s “vibe coding” era, as demand surges among software developers for tools that can build based on prompts to a chatbot.Before SpaceX announced an intent to buy Cursor, the startup had been in talks with investors to raise about $2 billion in a funding round with a valuation of more than $50 billion, not including the investment, Bloomberg had reported. The company dropped those plans, with xAI instead picking up its future computing needs.Musk’s bets on AI have proven costly for SpaceX, which posted a $4.94 billion net loss last year as the company retroactively took on the debt of xAI’s investments. Capital expenditures fuelling Musk’s plans nearly doubled $20.7 billion last year. The biggest single spending block of that is dedicated to AI.BloombergSaveLog in or Subscribe to save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? LoginFollow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.Find out moreRead MoreMergers & acquisitionsIPOSpaceXElon MuskFetching latest articles