SpaceX's $60 Billion Cursor Acquisition Puts Indian-Origin Co-founder Aman Sanger in Spotlight

A Landmark Acquisition

Elon Musk's SpaceX has agreed to acquire Anysphere, the company behind the AI coding platform Cursor, in a deal that values the startup at $60 billion. The transaction, reported by The Economic Times and The Times of India, makes Anysphere a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX, with Cursor shareholders receiving SpaceX Class A stock based on the $60-billion implied equity value, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing cited by Outlook Business.

The deal marks a dramatic turn for Anysphere, which was founded only in 2022. In April 2026, SpaceX and Cursor announced a collaboration that included an option for SpaceX to acquire the company for $60 billion or pursue a $10-billion partnership. SpaceX ultimately chose the acquisition route, according to reports. The agreement follows a period of rapid growth for Cursor, which had claimed more than $1 billion in annualized revenue before the acquisition, as reported by The Times of India.

Aman Sanger: From MIT to COO

At the centre of the deal is Aman Sanger, a 25-year-old Indian-origin entrepreneur who serves as Anysphere's chief operating officer. Born in the US to Indian immigrant parents, Sanger studied computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) between 2018 and 2022, according to The Times of India. It was at MIT that he met his co-founders, Michael Truell, Sualeh Asif and Arvid Lunnemark, with whom he founded Anysphere in 2022.

Before starting Anysphere, Sanger gained experience through internships and roles at Google and Bridgewater Associates, and also launched an AI consultancy, as reported by The Economic Times and The Times of India. The Economic Times notes that he started coding at the age of 14.

Sanger's family background has drawn particular attention in India. His father, Arvind Sanger, graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay with a Tech degree in 1984 before moving to the US, according to The Times of India. He later earned an MBA from Tulane University and built a career on Wall Street. His mother, Shilpa Sanger, is an orthodontist and entrepreneur who also became an angel investor through the investment network Golden Seeds, as reported by The Times of India. She also took on a business management role at Geosphere Capital, the same report adds.

Cursor's Rise and Its Founders' Stakes

Cursor has grown into a widely used AI coding tool, designed to work with larger portions of a developer's codebase, generate and modify code, identify bugs and handle complex programming tasks based on natural-language instructions. The Times of India reports that millions of software developers at enterprises such as Nvidia, Adobe, Uber, Shopify and PayPal use Cursor to generate and edit code, and that the platform is used across 64% of Fortune 500 companies, according to Outlook Business.

The acquisition has turned Sanger and his co-founders into billionaires. Forbes estimates that each co-founder held approximately 4.5% of Anysphere, putting each founder's stake at around $2.7 billion based on the $60-billion valuation, as reported by The Economic Times and The Times of India. A separate report in The Times of India cites Forbes estimates that each co-founder received SpaceX shares worth $2.4 billion at the deal's closing, though the two figures have not been reconciled in available reporting. Forbes' latest estimate puts Sanger's personal net worth at over $2.5 billion, according to The Times of India.

Major investors in Anysphere, including Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital, are expected to benefit from the transaction, according to The Economic Times.

OpenAI Ends Partnership with Cursor

The deal has also added a new dimension to Musk's rivalry with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Last week, OpenAI pulled its models out of Cursor, with a proposed shutoff date of November 12, 2026, as reported by The Times of India. The stated reason is Elon Musk, and OpenAI put that in writing in a public blog post.

OpenAI claims that X, formerly Twitter and now folded into SpaceX, broke the terms of its contract after Musk took over the platform. It also points to sworn testimony this year in which Musk acknowledged that xAI, likewise now part of SpaceX, had violated OpenAI's terms of service, according to The Times of India. OpenAI added that its forthcoming model, Astra, raises the accountability bar further, which is why it would rather end the arrangement than extend it to a partner it does not trust. It says it gave the maximum notice its contract allows so developers get time to plan.

A Future Integrated with SpaceX

SpaceX and Cursor had been working on a new AI model that was expected to be used across Cursor as well as Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Musk's xAI, according to The Economic Times. The acquisition aligns with Musk's broader AI ambitions, which include integrating Cursor's technology across his enterprises, as noted in the reports.

For Aman Sanger, the journey from an MIT student exploring AI's possibilities to the COO of a company acquired for $60 billion represents a rapid rise. The deal has not only created substantial wealth for its founders but also placed an Indian-origin entrepreneur at the forefront of one of the most significant AI transactions of the year.