--- title: SpaceX's AI coding shopping spree: Cursor, then a... description: SpaceX, just days after closing its $60bn acquisition of Cursor, reportedly approached Cognition (maker of the Devin coding agent) about a potential deal.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-ai-coding-shopping-spree-cursor-then-a-reported-run-at-cognition-cqgttw15k twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: SpaceX's AI coding shopping spree: Cursor, then a reported run at Cognition | daily.dev og:description: SpaceX, just days after closing its $60bn acquisition of Cursor, reportedly approached Cognition (maker of the Devin coding agent) about a potential deal.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-ai-coding-shopping-spree-cursor-then-a-reported-run-at-cognition-cqgttw15k og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cqGttW15k.png og:image:alt: SpaceX's AI coding shopping spree: Cursor, then a reported run at Cognition og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # SpaceX's AI coding shopping spree: Cursor, then a reported run at Cognition **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 3 min read · 3 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary SpaceX, just days after closing its $60bn acquisition of Cursor, reportedly approached Cognition (maker of the Devin coding agent) about a potential deal. Cognition CEO Scott Wu denied the company is for sale, but Bloomberg reports talks occurred, possibly involving Cognition using SpaceX's compute rather than a straight buyout. Cognition previously raised $1bn at a $26bn valuation, with reported early conversations floating figures north of $40bn. Musk is said to be pushing for SpaceX's AI division to out-earn its rocket business by September. The piece argues Cursor's sale makes sense because it lacked its own frontier models and GPU infrastructure, unlike Codex or Claude, leaving it squeezed on token economics - and frames SpaceX's compute as a potential lifeline. ## Content ## What happened OpenAI announced it's ending its model supply agreement with Cursor, with access shutting off on November 12. The trigger was SpaceX's $60 billion acquisition of the AI coding tool. OpenAI invoked a change-of-control provision in its contract, citing a straightforward reason: it doesn't trust Elon Musk's companies to honor the terms of service. The blog post was diplomatic about it, but the subtext wasn't subtle. OpenAI pointed to xAI's alleged distillation of OpenAI models — Musk admitted under oath that xAI had "partly" distilled them — and Twitter's history of contract violations as evidence that SpaceX can't be trusted as a counterparty. OpenAI also said it won't be sharing its upcoming Astra model with Cursor at all. For what it's worth, OpenAI says developers can still use their own API keys in Cursor, and its IDE extensions will remain available. The partnership itself is just done. ## How big a deal is this, actually? Cursor's CEO Michael Truell pushed back quickly, noting that OpenAI models account for roughly 5% of Cursor's traffic. That's not nothing, but it's not the core of the product either. Cursor already ships Grok 4.5 on every plan through SpaceX's AI arm, and Anthropic was quick to signal it's staying put — Anthropic's head of compute confirmed they'll keep increasing capacity to support Claude in Cursor. (There's some irony there: critics pointed out that Anthropic pulled its models from Windsurf under similar circumstances, and that Cursor now effectively controls a significant chunk of Anthropic's compute capacity. Make of that what you will.) Truell also said Cursor is in active discussions with Azure as a fallback for the OpenAI traffic, so the practical disruption for users may end up being minimal. For EU developers, the situation is slightly murkier. EU data-switching rules require two months' notice and free data porting — but those protections cover customers leaving a supplier, not customers being dropped by one. Cursor's EU users get 75 days' notice and no statutory backing. ## Why SpaceX bought Cursor in the first place The acquisition makes more sense when you consider Cursor's structural problem: it couldn't compete long-term without owning its own models and GPU infrastructure. Rivals like Codex or Claude-backed tools can subsidize aggressive pricing through favorable API economics. Cursor, relying on third-party models, couldn't. SpaceX's compute capacity solves that. Five days after closing the Cursor deal, SpaceX reportedly approached Cognition — the company behind the Devin coding agent — about a possible acquisition, though Cognition's CEO Scott Wu publicly denied any talks and said the company isn't for sale. Bloomberg reported the discussions included a possible compute arrangement rather than a full buyout. The pattern fits: Musk has reportedly set a target for SpaceX's AI arm to generate more revenue than its rocket business by September. ## The bigger picture This is partly about Cursor, but it's also about what happens when AI infrastructure gets tangled up with corporate rivalries. OpenAI's decision to pull models from a product used by hundreds of thousands of developers — over a business dispute with its founder's nemesis — is the kind of move that makes "neutral infrastructure" sound like a fantasy. Cursor trusted OpenAI as neutral infrastructure for years. Now it's learning, somewhat abruptly, that infrastructure has owners, and owners have interests. ## Questions this post answers ### Did SpaceX acquire Cursor? Yes, SpaceX closed a $60bn acquisition of Cursor. Just five days later, SpaceX reportedly approached Cognition, the company behind the Devin coding agent, about a potential deal of its own, though talks reportedly involved Cognition using SpaceX's compute capacity rather than a straightforward buyout. _Follow how AI coding tool consolidation reshapes vendor choices on daily.dev._ ### Why did Cursor need to be acquired instead of staying independent? Cursor built its interface and workflow on top of open-source models rather than owning frontier models or GPU infrastructure, unlike Codex or Claude whose parent companies control token economics end to end. That left Cursor reliant on others for compute and pricing, making it vulnerable to being squeezed by rivals who can subsidize aggressive pricing with their own data centers. _Developers weighing AI coding tools by their underlying infrastructure can track these shifts on daily.dev._ ### What is Cognition's valuation and did it agree to be acquired by SpaceX? Cognition, maker of the Devin coding agent, previously raised $1bn at a $26bn valuation, and reported early conversations around a SpaceX deal floated figures north of $40bn. CEO Scott Wu publicly denied the company is for sale, though Bloomberg reported that talks did take place. _Anyone evaluating Devin against other coding agents can follow the story on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 5 discussions and 45 comments across x (as of 2026-08-29). **TL;DR:** Reactions are split between viewing OpenAI's move as legitimate self-preservation (competitive/trust concerns) versus dismissing it as spite over Musk, while several note the actual traffic impact (5%) is too small to matter and see it mainly as symbolic positioning in the OpenAI-Anthropic-Musk rivalry. **Sentiment:** 10% positive · 45% mixed · 45% skeptical **The case for** - Some see Anthropic's quick public support of Cursor as a savvy, decisive move that fills the gap left by OpenAI. - A few frame OpenAI's exit as a rational business/competitive decision rather than personal animus. **The pushback** - Many argue the 5% traffic figure shows OpenAI isn't losing much and the move is more symbolic/spiteful than substantive. - Several suspect OpenAI's stated 'trust' rationale is cover for personal animosity toward Musk (Sam Altman called out repeatedly). - Skepticism that Anthropic's compute-for-access arrangement with SpaceX is principled rather than opportunistic, given Anthropic's past stance on restricting model use. - Doubts about how binding or real the compute/capacity deals actually are, with no disclosed contract details. **By community** - x (heated): Replies are contentious, split between casting OpenAI's move as legitimate strategy and as personal spite, with pointed jabs at both Musk and Altman. **Hottest debate:** Whether OpenAI's cutoff of Cursor is a genuine trust/competitive decision or simply spite directed at Musk. **Open questions** - Is there an actual disclosed compute capacity deal between Anthropic and SpaceX, or just announced intentions? - How will this affect Cursor's product direction long-term given its increased reliance on Anthropic and its own models? **Highlights** > @testingcatalog OpenAI serving 5% of Cursor’s traffic? they’re not losing an acquirer. They’re keeping a beta test for their own IDE with zero churn risk and infinite feedback loops. > — [TheAIShrink on x](https://x.com/TheAIShrink/status/2093599557275816142) > @testingcatalog OpenAI withdrew from 5% of traffic and called it a competitive move. Anthropic responded in hours. the math on who actually needed who just became very public > — [SlimAssiliX on x · 1 points](https://x.com/SlimAssiliX/status/2093641142810153424) > @scaling01 Anthropic wants gigawatts to sell API hours. OpenAI is burning $5B a year just keeping the lights on before AGI arrives that doubles revenue every six months. they are not building an infrastructure company; one is selling bricks, the other needs them all or it dies > — [TheAIShrink on x](https://x.com/TheAIShrink/status/2093585535470027124) > @jerryjliu0 Sam Altaman thinks OpenAI's data that goes through Cursor is helping them to make Grok better. He is a loser, a con man and a hater. > — [JimmyGoJump on x](https://x.com/JimmyGoJump/status/2093620308716540030) > @Xxi5olc @jerryjliu0 it's funny ppl think it's just the compute. they've had meetings, there's things they disagree on but overall they're working towards the same goal, anthropic is essentially allied to SpaceX and Elon approves despite what he's said before. > — [senb0n22a on x](https://x.com/senb0n22a/status/2093569336011325481) **Source threads** - [x](https://x.com/Hesamation/status/2093623560182931631) · 1 points · 4 comments - [x](https://x.com/amanrsanger/status/2093544904064635333) · 0 points · 0 comments - [x](https://x.com/testingcatalog/status/2093598203916468500) · 0 points · 14 comments - [x](https://x.com/scaling01/status/2093552021051765039) · 0 points · 18 comments - [x](https://x.com/jerryjliu0/status/2093549924616921563) · 0 points · 9 comments --- Tags: [#business](https://daily.dev/tags/business), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#spacex](https://daily.dev/tags/spacex) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-ai-coding-shopping-spree-cursor-then-a-reported-run-at-cognition-cqgttw15k) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"SpaceX's AI coding shopping spree: Cursor, then a reported run at Cognition","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-ai-coding-shopping-spree-cursor-then-a-reported-run-at-cognition-cqgttw15k","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-ai-coding-shopping-spree-cursor-then-a-reported-run-at-cognition-cqgttw15k"},"datePublished":"2026-08-25T14:44:32.573Z","dateModified":"2026-08-29T10:56:35.770Z","description":"SpaceX, just days after closing its $60bn acquisition of Cursor, reportedly approached Cognition (maker of the Devin coding agent) about a potential deal....","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CfBuTYcE7Wk/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CfBuTYcE7Wk/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collections","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collections","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fk_6ycEi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996001/logos/collections?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-ai-coding-shopping-spree-cursor-then-a-reported-run-at-cognition-cqgttw15k","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"business,ai-coding,spacex","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collections","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"SpaceX's AI coding shopping spree: Cursor, then a reported run at Cognition"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-s-ai-coding-shopping-spree-cursor-then-a-reported-run-at-cognition-cqgttw15k#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Did SpaceX acquire Cursor?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, SpaceX closed a $60bn acquisition of Cursor. Just five days later, SpaceX reportedly approached Cognition, the company behind the Devin coding agent, about a potential deal of its own, though talks reportedly involved Cognition using SpaceX's compute capacity rather than a straightforward buyout. Follow how AI coding tool consolidation reshapes vendor choices on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did Cursor need to be acquired instead of staying independent?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Cursor built its interface and workflow on top of open-source models rather than owning frontier models or GPU infrastructure, unlike Codex or Claude whose parent companies control token economics end to end. That left Cursor reliant on others for compute and pricing, making it vulnerable to being squeezed by rivals who can subsidize aggressive pricing with their own data centers. 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