SpaceX's $60 Billion All-Stock Cursor Deal Closes, Setting Up a Clash Between AI Ambition and Lockup Supply
Published on 08/15/2026 at 03:41 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The check may have cleared, but the market's verdict on SpaceX's audacious bet on AI coding is still very much in motion. The company formally completed its all-stock acquisition of Anysphere, the parent of coding assistant Cursor, in a transaction valued at $60 billion — a deal that transforms the rocket maker's competitive posture in the software arena.
SpaceX issued roughly 389.3 million Class A shares to seal the transaction, priced against the volume-weighted average of the preceding seven trading sessions. The consideration also includes 1.75 million vested restricted stock units, 29.1 million unvested RSUs, and 44.4 million options. The final structure represents a dramatic escalation from the $10 billion partnership the two companies had sketched out in April.
Cursor arrives with considerable commercial heft: more than 50,000 enterprise customers, including 64 percent of the Fortune 500. The unit will operate under a newly created division called SpaceXAI, and in return gains access to the company's Colossus compute infrastructure — capacity SpaceX already rents out to Anthropic and Google.
Morgan Stanley sees meaningful revenue upside from the acquisition, projecting a contribution of up to $13 billion by 2027. The bank's analysts expect Cursor's annualized recurring revenue to climb from roughly $4 billion in June to $33 billion by 2030, with a base-case price target of $300 and a bull case of $600.
Musk's AI Revenue Pledge Meets a Hefty Capex Bill
The closing coincides with an aggressive internal forecast from chief executive Elon Musk. Speaking at a company-wide update midweek, he said monthly AI revenue could surpass Starlink and rocket launch sales as soon as next month, with the gap widening meaningfully in the fourth quarter. The second quarter of 2026 tells part of that story: total revenue reached $7.81 billion, up 92 percent year over year, with the AI segment contributing $2.56 billion and the Starlink connectivity business $4.3 billion.
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The growth, however, carries a heavy price tag. Capital expenditures topped $18 billion in the second quarter alone, with roughly $65 billion budgeted for the full year. The joint chip-fab project with Tesla in Texas, dubbed Terafab, carries an initial price of $16.8 billion. The company still posted a net loss of $541 million, or $0.09 per share — significantly better than the $0.26 loss analysts had penciled in — while adjusted EBITDA came in at $3.5 billion.
Insider Positions Grow Even as the Stock Stumbles
The deal also brought fresh disclosure from Musk himself. A Schedule 13G filing shows he holds 48.4 percent of SpaceX, a stake that keeps him firmly in control following the June listing. Board member Antonio J. Gracias, meanwhile, reported an economic interest of 503.4 million Class A shares through Valor-affiliated entities, a 6.5 percent position.
Institutional money has followed. Morgan Stanley disclosed a new $2.3 billion stake, with Wealthcare Advisory Partners and BNP Paribas also establishing positions — a signal that some large investors view the recent share-price weakness as an entry point rather than a red flag.
The stock itself tells a more cautious story. Shares closed Friday at €120.96, down 1.2 percent on the day, after Thursday's close of €122.54. The pullback extends a pattern of volatility that has defined the post-IPO period: the stock sits roughly 38 percent below its June high of €194.46, with annualized 30-day volatility running at 93 percent. The RSI of 54.3 suggests the market has yet to pick a clear direction between growth optimism and risk aversion.
Lockup Calendar Looms Over the AI Narrative
Analyst sentiment remains broadly constructive. Of 40 houses covering the stock, 75 percent rate it a buy, with a median price target of $217. Goldman Sachs' Eric Sheridan lifted his target to $220 in early August, citing progress in the AI infrastructure business around Colossus.
The counterweight is supply. Lockup expirations in October and December are set to release further tranches of insider shares, and the second-quarter capex surge has added to investor unease. The tension is straightforward: SpaceX is spending aggressively to build an AI software franchise that could one day rival its launch business, but the near-term share price is caught between that ambition and the mechanics of post-IPO share supply. The next two lockup dates will offer an early test of which force wins out.
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