- SpaceX is acquiring Silicon Valley AI start-up Cursor for $60 billion.
- CEO Michael Truell (25) has an estimated fortune of $1.3 billion as a result of the deal.
- Cursor recently recorded annual sales of over a billion dollars – a tenfold increase in less than a year.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX filed on Friday largest IPO in history. Shortly afterwards, what is now the fifth most valuable company in the world snapped up the AI start-up Cursor for $60 billion.
The CEO of the AI company from Silicon Valley is the 25-year-old American Michael Truell. He manages to become a billionaire overnight. The broadcaster “NDTV” estimates its assets after the deal at around $1.3 billion thanks to the shareholding. This makes him one of the youngest in the billionaire club.
This is Michael Truell
Although Trull runs a fast-growing tech company, little is known privately about him. He largely stays out of the limelight, writes the portal “Tempo.co”. He has earned a reputation as a product-oriented founder who would rather develop software than seek attention.
According to the report, Truell grew up in New York and went to school in the Bronx. He started programming at the age of eleven to develop mobile games. At 18, he completed his first year at the elite MIT university and completed a summer internship at Google.
In the same year, he dropped out of his studies to devote himself entirely to programming. In 2022 he founded their company together with fellow students Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark and Aman Sanger.
After the first attempt, the breakthrough follows
First, the four wanted to use AI in mechanical engineering. They developed models for CAD software with intelligent 3D autocompletion, as the portal “Startplatz.de” writes. But the four noticed that they lacked enthusiasm for construction and engineering.
What role do AI tools play in your everyday (professional) life?
That’s why they focused on AI coding tools that aim to make programming more productive and accessible. In an interview, Truell spoke about his vision that classic coding will become increasingly automated in the future.
For SpaceX, Cursor is the chance to benefit from the AI boom. According to Business Insider, millions of developers use the company’s tools. In November, the startup announced that its revenue had increased more than tenfold in less than a year, rising to over $1 billion. The company’s valuation rose to almost $30 billion.
Cursor has been partnering with SpaceX since April to improve the Grok AI model. SpaceX secured the option to take over. Truell told employees that the possible merger with SpaceX was “a big risk or a big bet that we’re making.”
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Fabian Pöschl (fpo) has been working for 20 minutes since 2020. He is responsible for business news in the economics department
