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

For the millions of developers who use the AI coding app, nothing changes today. But its new owner builds a rival model, and three things are now worth watching.

Agent-drafted, human-editedPublished June 19, 2026

Reviewed by Trevor Brown

SpaceX said this week it is buying Cursor, the AI coding app, in an all-stock deal worth about $60 billion.1 2 If you are one of the millions of developers who code in it, the first thing to know is that nothing changes today.3

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SpaceX has exercised the option to acquire @cursor_ai in an all-stock transaction with the goal of building the world’s most useful AI models. For the past few months, SpaceXAI has been jointly training a model with Cursor, which will be released in Cursor and Grok Build soon. Show more

SpaceX

1:21 PM · Jun 16, 2026

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SpaceX's official post, June 16, confirming it exercised its option to buy Cursor. The company says a jointly trained model is headed into Cursor and Grok Build.

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.

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 to Claude; co-founder Jared Kaplan said, "I think it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI." 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.