SpaceX announced a $60 billion option to acquire AI coding startup Cursor. Meanwhile, Starlink Mobile is growing fast — but actual usage is paper-thin. Both points make sense through one lens: the IPO.
SpaceX is moving fast on two fronts this week. On 21 April 2026, the company announced a partnership with AI coding startup Cursor — and disclosed it holds an option to acquire Cursor for $60 billion (€55.3 billion) later this year. Furthermore, on the same day, a new report from Ookla revealed that Starlink Mobile — SpaceX‘s satellite direct-to-device service — is growing steadily but still reaches fewer than 1.3% of mobile users in any market. Both developments flow in the same context. SpaceX confidentially filed for what could become the largest IPO in history on 1 April 2026. Furthermore, the company is targeting a valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion (€1.61 trillion). Consequently, every product announcement and partnership deal now reads as pre-IPO positioning.
What’s Happening & Why It Matters
The Cursor Deal: Option to Buy at $60 Billion
On 21 April, SpaceX posted on X, announcing that “SpaceXAI and @cursor_ai are now working closely together to create the world’s best coding and knowledge work AI.” Furthermore, the company disclosed the deal’s financial structure. SpaceX holds an option to acquire Cursor for $60 billion (€55.3 billion) by the end of 2026. Alternatively, it can pay $10 billion (€9.2 billion) for “our work together” — a collaboration fee that would leave Cursor independent.
The post came minutes before the New York Times published a story claiming SpaceX had agreed to purchase Cursor outright for $50 billion. The Times later updated its story to reflect SpaceX‘s own account of the option structure. Consequently, the company appears to have deliberately controlled the timing of the announcement. Furthermore, just last week, reports emerged that xAI —now a SpaceX subsidiary — had begun renting computing capacity from its Colossus supercomputer facility to Cursor. The coding startup was using tens of thousands of xAI chips to train its latest AI model. The formal announcement formalized what was already an operational relationship.
What Cursor Is — and Why SpaceX Wants It
Cursor is an AI-powered software development tool. It helps software engineers write, test, and debug code using AI assistance. Furthermore, Cursor was founded in 2022 by four individuals born after 2000. The company is one of the fastest-growing AI startups in Silicon Valley’s history. Its valuation climbed from $2.5 billion in January 2025, to $9 billion in May 2025, to $29.3 billion at its $2.3 billion Series D close in November 2025. Furthermore, Cursor is currently raising additional capital at a valuation of over $50 billion. Andreessen Horowitz was set to co-lead that round, with Nvidia and Thrive Capital also participating.
The financial trajectory is equally striking. Cursor currently generates approximately $2 billion in annualized revenue. Furthermore, analysts project that figure will exceed $6 billion by year’s end — a fivefold increase from $1 billion in late 2025. Additionally, the company recently turned gross-margin positive. Its enterprise business — approximately 60% of total revenue — already generates positive gross margins. Consequently, Cursor is not a cash-burning startup. It is a scaling, profitable AI product company with strong developer adoption and clear enterprise demand.
The IPO Logic Behind the Cursor Move
SpaceX described the collaboration in hardware-centric terms. The company views the partnership as combining Cursor‘s “leading product and distribution to expert software engineers” with SpaceX‘s Colossus supercomputer — which the company claims delivers the equivalent compute power of one million Nvidia H100 chips. Furthermore, the goal is explicitly to build “the world’s best coding and knowledge work AI.”
However, the strategic subtext is harder to miss. SpaceX merged with xAI in February 2026 in an all-stock deal valued at $1.25 trillion (€1.15 trillion). That merger absorbed xAI’s AI capabilities — including the Grok large language model — directly into SpaceX‘s balance sheet. Furthermore, by the time of the merger, all 11 original xAI co-founders had departed the company. Consequently, xAI needs new engineering talent and competitive AI products to justify its valuation. Cursor offers both. Additionally, the deal signals to IPO investors that SpaceX is not just a rocket company. It is building an AI products empire alongside its space infrastructure.
Cursor CEO Michael Truell confirmed the partnership will help scale the company’s model. Furthermore, analysts noted that acquiring Cursor — before potential competitors like Google or Microsoft move in — would close a product gap in SpaceX‘s AI portfolio. Consequently, the $60 billion acquisition option is not simply expensive. It is a calculated bet to lock in a high-margin AI product company before the IPO window opens.
Starlink Mobile: Real Growth, Tiny Actual Usage
On the same day, Ookla released a new report on the Direct-to-Device (D2D) satellite sector — the technology underpinning Starlink Mobile. Furthermore, the numbers tell a story of solid structural growth but persistently low consumer adoption.
D2D connections increased approximately 24.5% between July 2025 and March 2026. Furthermore, the United States leads all markets, accounting for 45.9% of global D2D connections. Australia follows at 18.1%, Chile at 10%, and Canada at 9.8%. Starlink currently holds 59 carrier partnerships globally — more than any competitor. AST SpaceMobile follows with 28 partnerships. Additionally, D2D services have launched in 15 countries, with a further 61 countries planning or evaluating satellite-to-smartphone services.
However, the headline numbers obscure a practical limitation. Despite the growth, actual usage rates are very low. Furthermore, the highest consumer adoption rate worldwide is 1.26% in Chile. In the United States, only 0.46% of Speedtest users recorded a D2D satellite connection during March 2026. Ookla analyst Mike Dano explained the constraint directly. D2D technology “can only transmit a few bytes of data at a time as the technology is still maturing.” Furthermore, the technology generally cannot penetrate buildings or other structures. Consequently, it does not address indoor coverage — which accounts for an estimated 80% of all mobile data consumption.
Why T-Mobile Charges Extra — and Its Influence
One specific finding in the Ookla report is instructive. D2D connections in the United States and Canada declined in certain periods. Furthermore, Ookla attributed this decline directly to T-Mobile and Rogers charging customers extra fees for satellite connectivity. Consequently, when carriers treat D2D as a premium add-on rather than a bundled feature, adoption drops. Additionally, this pricing dynamic reveals that the technology’s commercial viability depends heavily on how carriers position it.
SpaceX has rebranded its direct-to-cell service as Starlink Mobile — a shift from the more technical “Direct to Cell” name. Furthermore, the company is targeting more than 25 million monthly active users through carrier partnerships by the end of 2026, up from approximately 10 million today. Additionally, next-generation V2 Starlink satellites promise a 20x improvement in link performance — eventually supporting voice calls and broadband-speed data, not just text messaging. Consequently, current adoption rates reflect the current generation of technology, not the roadmap.
Two Fronts, One Narrative
Taken together, the Cursor announcement and the Starlink Mobile data tell a coherent pre-IPO story. SpaceX is building the case that it is not just a rocket launch business. Furthermore, it is a technology company with AI products, satellite connectivity infrastructure, and computing power. The Cursor deal adds a high-growth, gross-margin-positive AI product to the portfolio. The Starlink Mobile growth numbers — even if adoption rates are low — demonstrate an expanding global presence and carrier partnership network. Additionally, SpaceX‘s confidential April 2026 SEC filing targets a June listing. Consequently, investors evaluating the IPO will weigh both stories against a target valuation of $1.75 trillion (€1.61 trillion) — an extraordinary multiple for any company.
TF Summary: What’s Next
SpaceX must decide by the end of 2026 whether to exercise its option to acquire Cursor for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for the collaboration. Furthermore, if SpaceX acquires Cursor, it would be the largest AI startup acquisition in history. Additionally, Cursor’s projected revenue growth to $6 billion by year’s end provides a concrete valuation anchor for the combined entity’s AI story. Consequently, the IPO roadshow — expected ahead of a June listing — will likely feature both the Starlink Mobile growth trajectory and the Cursor partnership as headline AI and connectivity assets.
Furthermore, Starlink Mobile‘s near-term growth depends on two factors: carrier pricing decisions and V2 satellite deployment. If T-Mobile and other carriers bundle D2D as a standard feature rather than a premium add-on, adoption rates will rise materially. Additionally, the V2 satellite architecture — which requires Starship to achieve sufficient launch cadence — is a medium-term story rather than an immediate one. Consequently, SpaceX‘s IPO investors will need to price in both the current reality — low D2D adoption and a Cursor option, not yet an acquisition — and the future potential of a company that spans rockets, satellites, AI models, and developer tools.