SpaceX Signs $60 Billion Deal to Acquire AI Startup Cursor, Co-Founded by Pakistani-Origin Youth

Washington / Karachi — Special Report
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has entered into a landmark agreement to acquire Cursor, an AI-powered code editing tool, for a staggering $60 billion — a deal that has put Pakistan on the global tech map, as one of Cursor’s co-founders is Saleh Asif, a young man from Karachi.
Deal Breakdown
SpaceX announced via X that Cursor’s parent company Anysphere has granted SpaceX an option to acquire the startup for $60 billion this year. Should the acquisition not proceed, SpaceX will pay $10 billion for a strategic partnership. The combined goal is to merge Cursor’s AI software engineering expertise with SpaceX’s supercomputing infrastructure to develop the world’s most capable AI models.
From Karachi to MIT
According to Forbes, Saleh Asif completed his early education in Karachi and represented Pakistan at the International Mathematical Olympiad from 2016 to 2018 before earning admission to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, he co-founded Anysphere with three friends, giving birth to Cursor.
A Billion-Dollar Success Story
Cursor now generates over $1 billion in annual revenue and was valued at $29.3 billion in November 2025 following a $2.3 billion funding round. Over 50,000 companies worldwide rely on Cursor for AI-assisted software development.
Former caretaker IT Minister Dr. Umar Saif praised Asif on X, calling him a true role model for Pakistani youth — “not a property dealer, tax evader, or born-rich — but a self-made young man from a middle-class Karachi family who changed the way the world writes code, and is now a billionaire at just 26.”