SpaceX Buys Cursor for $60B: Four MIT Founders Become Billionaires, June 17

SpaceX formally agreed to buy Cursor, an AI coding tool startup, for $60 billion in an all-stock deal announced June 17. The four co-founders—Michael Truell, Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark, and Aman Sanger, all in their mid-20s—each own roughly 9% of Cursor (formally Anysphere), worth $5.5 billion apiece. The deal closes in Q3 2026. SpaceX stock rose 4.8% to $201.80 on the news.

Why SpaceX Wants Cursor’s AI Coding Tool

Cursor generates, edits, and automates code using natural language instructions. The tool has scaled rapidly and generates $2.6 billion in annualized business-to-business revenue. SpaceX aims to compete with OpenAI’s Codex, Anthropic’s Claude Code, Microsoft’s Github Copilot, and Google’s Jules in the enterprise AI coding market. SpaceX and Cursor have already been jointly training a model, which will release in Cursor and Grok Build soon.

Four Young Founders Strike Billionaire Status

The co-founders met at MIT and started Cursor in 2022. Truell interned at Google. Asif, originally from Karachi, Pakistan, represented his country at the International Math Olympiad. Lunnemark, a math olympiad gold medalist from Sweden, worked as a quant trader at Jane Street. Sanger interned at Bridgewater Associates. Each founder retains a 4.5% stake after the deal, making them paper multibillionaires in their mid-20s, according to Bloomberg reporting.

SpaceX’s High Stock Price Makes the Deal Cheaper

SpaceX stock jumped 50% from its $135 IPO price to over $200 per share, valuing the company at $2.66 trillion. Since the deal is all-stock, SpaceX’s rising valuation means it uses fewer shares to acquire Cursor. SpaceX had 30 days after its IPO to decide whether to exercise the call option struck in April. The higher SpaceX’s stock climbs, the better the deal looks for shareholders. Forbes estimates each founder will be worth $2.7 billion when the deal closes.

Valuation Concerns Persist Despite Investor Enthusiasm

Morningstar assigned SpaceX a fair value of $63 per share, far below the current $201.80 price. The firm’s model assumes SpaceX develops a rapidly reusable Starship and commercializes orbital AI data centers—engineering problems Morningstar does not expect to solve until at least 2028. Despite skepticism, retail traders showed extreme bullish sentiment on Stocktwits, with message volume surging 407,767% over the past week. Nearly one million call contracts traded on the first day of SPCX options trading.

Final Thoughts

SpaceX’s $60 billion Cursor acquisition strengthens its AI coding position but raises valuation questions. With Morningstar’s fair value at $63 versus the current $201.80 price, the stock faces significant downside risk despite strong retail enthusiasm.

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