Elon Musk’s SpaceX Buys AI Firm Anysphere for $60 Billion, 25-Year-Old Aman Sanger at the Center

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has acquired Anysphere, the company behind AI coding platform Cursor, in an all-stock deal valued at $60 billion, bringing 25-year-old Indian-origin entrepreneur Aman Sanger into the global spotlight.

The acquisition, completed in August 2026, made Anysphere a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX and marked one of the largest deals involving a venture-backed technology company.

Sanger developed an interest in computers at the age of 14 while growing up in New York. He later studied computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), gaining experience through internships and work with companies including Google, Bridgewater Associates and AI search firm You.com.

In 2022, Sanger and three MIT classmates, Michael Truell, Sualeh Asif and Arvid Lunnemark, founded Anysphere. The company initially explored AI applications for computer-aided design before shifting its focus to software development.

That shift resulted in Cursor, an AI-powered coding platform that helps developers write, edit, debug, and improve software through natural-language instructions.

Cursor quickly attracted individual developers and major corporate users as demand for AI-assisted programming grew. Unlike basic coding assistants, Cursor can understand larger parts of a software project and perform multi-step tasks across multiple files.

The acquisition also fits Musk’s expanding AI ambitions. SpaceX has increasingly moved beyond aerospace into artificial intelligence and computing, including its integration with xAI earlier this year.

Before the acquisition, Cursor had already worked with SpaceX on AI training and gained access to SpaceX’s massive computing infrastructure. The partnership eventually developed into a full acquisition.

The $60 billion transaction was an all-stock deal, meaning Anysphere shareholders received SpaceX shares rather than a direct cash payment. The proceeds will therefore be distributed among founders, employees, and investors according to their respective ownership stakes.

For Musk, the deal strengthens SpaceX’s position in AI-powered software development. For Sanger, it represents a remarkable journey from learning to code at 14 to co-founding a company acquired by Musk for $60 billion just four years after its establishment.

The acquisition also highlights the rapidly growing role of AI in software development, with technology increasingly shifting from simple code assistance toward AI systems capable of carrying out complex programming tasks.