By acquiring Cursor with newly issued stock during a massive post-IPO rally, SpaceX leveraged its inflated, retail-driven market cap to purchase a significant asset. The value added to its market cap far exceeded the acquisition cost, showcasing a savvy corporate finance strategy for newly public companies.
Snap's AR Spectacles are priced in a difficult middle ground. At $2,200, they are too expensive for the mass market where Meta's cheaper Ray-Bans succeed as a lifestyle product. Yet, they lack the dedicated enthusiast ecosystem that allows Apple to sell premium hardware like the Vision Pro, leaving them without a clear target customer.
Cursor's history reveals the danger of building on a single AI provider. Despite being a huge customer for Anthropic, the platform ultimately developed its own competing solution after initially downplaying the core technology as a "research effort." This highlights the platform risk inherent in the rapidly changing AI ecosystem.
The observation that Cursor's $60B sale is the largest VC-backed strategic sale ever signals a major market shift. Traditionally, IPOs were seen as the only path to the highest valuations. This deal demonstrates that M&A can now provide exits on a scale previously reserved for the public markets, changing founder and investor strategy.