Elon Musk has pushed SpaceX into the enterprise software market by acquiring coding assistant Cursor. The deal, worth $60bn in newly issued shares, comes just days after the company's $1.8tn initial public offering. This aggressive move mimics Mark Zuckerberg's 2012 acquisition of Instagram shortly before Facebook went public.

Cursor's chief, Michael Truell, sought the deal to solve severe compute constraints. SpaceX provides the necessary infrastructure via its Colossus supercomputer. This acquisition gives Musk a foothold in a market he estimates at $22.7tn, though his current revenue from enterprise applications is almost non-existent.

Success depends on whether Musk allows Cursor to remain independent. Users currently route tasks through various models from OpenAI and Anthropic. If Musk forces a shift toward his own AI models, he risks alienating a customer base of 50,000 businesses. This deal tests his ability to manage assets without meddling.

Historical precedents like Google's $1.7bn purchase of YouTube show how small acquisitions can eventually drive massive revenue. While the dollar amount here is larger, the deal represents only about 2 per cent of the company's total market capitalization.