He estimated that if SpaceX grows from $1 trillion to $2 trillion, the stock-based deal becomes far cheaper in hindsight.
- Chamath Palihapitiya said Musk essentially got Cursor at a 50% discount due to SpaceX's rapidly rising valuation.
- Cursor recently reached a $4 billion annualized revenue run rate, up from about $3 billion just months ago.
- Calling the transaction an "incredible deal," Palihapitiya praised Musk's dealmaking, saying: "His business intellect is off the charts."
Billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya says Elon Musk effectively acquired Cursor at a 50% discount, calling the $60 billion deal "incredible" and predicting that it marks the start of a consolidation phase that could culminate in a Tesla-SpaceX merger.
SPCX stock declined for a second straight session on Thursday, while TSLA shares snapped two consecutive days in the red to end 1% higher.
Why Chamath Thinks Musk Got Cursor At A Discount
Last week, SpaceX announced its $60 billion all-stock acquisition of Anysphere, the company behind the AI coding platform Cursor, giving SpaceX one of the fastest-growing software businesses in AI and further expanding Musk's AI ambitions following its acquisition of xAI.
However, Palihapitiya believes the headline price tag doesn't tell the full story: "The acquisition was essentially negotiated," he said on the latest All-In Podcast. "Whereas SpaceX today, let's call it a trillion, where could it be? Let's say, $2 trillion. So when the deal gets done on a stock-for-stock basis ... effectively, Elon's gotten a 50% discount."
In Palihapitiya's view, SpaceX's rapidly appreciating value effectively lowers the economic cost of acquisitions completed using stock. Palihapitiya said the deal looks even more attractive when Cursor's growth is factored in.
"What I didn't factor as well is that the revenue run rate would essentially double on top of that. So he essentially got Cursor for $15 billion, you got a good deal, which is unbelievable." Cursor recently hit a $4 billion annualized revenue run rate, up from $3 billion just months earlier. The deal also gives Cursor access to SpaceX's Colossus infrastructure and expands SpaceX's reach into enterprise AI and coding tools.
Palihapitiya saved some of his highest praise for Musk himself, who also went on to reshare the podcast later: "His business intellect is off the charts. That is an incredible deal."
Bull Case For SpaceX's $60B Cursor Bet
The bullish take echoes comments from fellow All-In co-host Jason Calacanis, who has been publicly advocating for a SpaceX-Cursor acquisition for months.
After the deal, Calacanis called the transaction potentially "the best acquisition since Instagram and YouTube," saying that Cursor's rapid growth combined with access to SpaceX's massive computing resources could propel it to the top of the AI coding market.
'It's Going To Be Glorious': Chamath On TSLA-SPCX Merger
Palihapitiya also said he expects a merger with Tesla soon: "And now the consolidation phase will begin," he said. "And we're going to see Tesla and SpaceX merge. And it's going to be glorious."
During a Forbes interview last month, Musk was asked whether he could eventually see "putting these companies together and just running one big company." Rather than dismissing the idea outright, Musk responded cautiously, saying: "Well, it'd be difficult for me to sort of comment on that, you know, because, you know, there's publicly traded companies, and they're publicly traded on ones, you know, about to be."
How Do Retail Traders Feel About TSLA And SPCX?
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for TSLA was 'extremely bearish' amid 'low' message volume, while SPCX drew 'bullish' sentiment amid 'extremely high' message volume.
One bearish user said, “Musk is just a vehicle to consolidate everything into one mega corporation. If you don’t don’t think they will try to merge Tesla into this SpaceX SPAC ur very ignorant. At that point, this guy will have enough buying power to buy any company he wants and further consolidate.”
View this Stocktwits post
Another user said, “$TSLA When is the tsla take under by spcx for 200/share?”
View this Stocktwits post
So far this year, Tesla's stock has lagged its "Magnificent Seven" peers, making it the group's third-worst performer, down about 11%. Even so, Tesla continues to command a premium valuation, trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 190x, by far the highest multiple among the Magnificent Seven stocks.
For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<
