The bankruptcy estate of crypto exchange FTX sold Alameda Research's early equity stake in Anysphere, the company behind AI code editor Cursor, for $200,000 in 2023. On April 21, 2026, SpaceX announced a strategic partnership that includes an option to acquire Anysphere outright for $60 billion, marking a staggering valuation gap.
From a $400K Seed Round to a $60 Billion Target
In April 2022, Alameda Research contributed $200,000 to Anysphere's $400,000 pre-seed round, securing an early equity position. FTX collapsed in November 2022, and its bankruptcy estate liquidated the stake at cost the following year. At the time of sale, the stake was worth exactly what Alameda paid.
Cursor has since become a dominant force in AI-assisted software development. Anysphere raised $900 million led by Thrive Capital at a $9 billion valuation. By April 2026, Cursor had surpassed one million daily active users, generated over 150 million lines of enterprise code daily, and counted 67% of Fortune 500 companies as clients. Its annualized recurring revenue exceeded $1 billion. Pre-announcement fundraising discussions placed Anysphere's valuation above $50 billion.
SpaceX's Billion-Dollar Option
On April 21, 2026, SpaceX and Anysphere announced a strategic partnership. SpaceX secured an option to acquire the company for $60 billion, or pay $10 billion for joint development of coding AI models using its Colossus supercomputer. The deal aims to pair Cursor's AI-native editor with SpaceX's compute infrastructure to build what both described as 'the world's best coding and knowledge work AI.'
Wu Blockchain flagged on April 22 that Alameda's $200,000 stake was placed in April 2022, seven months before FTX's collapse, and was subsequently sold at cost by the estate. For FTX creditors, the Anysphere disposal stands as one of the most notable missed opportunities. The estate has conducted several distribution rounds with recoveries surpassing 100% in nominal dollar terms for many claimants. A $2.2 billion distribution approved in early 2026 targeted senior creditor classes. Whether the Anysphere sale will face any review has not been disclosed.