SpaceX is buying Cursor. Here's what changes if you code in it.

SpaceX said this week it is buying Cursor, the AI coding app, in an all-stock deal worth about $60 billion.12 If you are one of the millions of developers who code in it, the first thing to know is that nothing changes today.3

The deal has not closed. A purchase this size must first clear federal antitrust review, at the Federal Trade Commission or the Justice Department, and xAI's own lawyers have already warned staff against coordinating with Cursor while that review is pending.4 For now, Cursor still lets you pick your model: its pages list Claude, GPT, Gemini and Grok, plus its own model, Composer.5 Your setup works tomorrow the way it works now.

What is worth watching is what the new owner wants.

Cursor's buyer is SpaceX, which houses Musk's xAI and its Grok model. SpaceX says it has been "jointly training a model with Cursor," one that "will be released in Cursor and Grok Build soon." Your coding app is now run by a company that makes one of the models it offers you.

1. Your model menu may tilt. Today Cursor is neutral about which model you pick. Its owner now has a reason it lacked before: to nudge you toward Grok, the model it builds. Nothing says it will. But the incentive is new.

2. Claude or GPT could get cut off, and not by Cursor. This is the one to watch most. Model makers have pulled access from rivals before. When OpenAI moved to buy the coding tool Windsurf last year, Anthropic cut Windsurf's access to Claude; co-founder Jared Kaplan said, "I think it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI."6 By that logic, Anthropic or OpenAI could limit a Cursor owned by Musk's xAI. If they do, the Claude or GPT model you rely on inside Cursor could degrade or vanish, no matter what SpaceX wants.

3. Your code could become training data. SpaceX says it has been "jointly training a model with Cursor." It has not said what data that uses, so whether your own prompts and code feed it is unconfirmed. What is clear is that the company now deciding how your work is handled is one that builds a competing model.

What you can do. Nothing forces a move today. If model choice matters to you, other editors remain: GitHub Copilot, Zed, Windsurf, or Anthropic's own Claude Code. Whether Cursor keeps Claude and GPT first-class is the simplest signal of where this is heading.

What we still don't know. When the deal closes, and whether regulators clear it. Whether Anthropic or OpenAI change how they serve a rival-owned app. Whether Cursor stays model-neutral. Cursor, Anthropic, and OpenAI have said nothing publicly.