SpaceX becomes 4th-largest US company

SpaceX continued its extraordinary stock market rally on Tuesday, surpassing Microsoft to become the fourth-largest company in the United States by market capitalisation, while also unveiling a major $60 billion acquisition of artificial intelligence coding platform Cursor.

The Elon Musk-led aerospace and technology company saw its shares rise around 8 per cent during early trading, pushing its market value to approximately $2.74 trillion.

The gain placed SpaceX ahead of Microsoft and further widened its lead over Amazon, which was valued at around $2.65 trillion at the same time.

The latest surge extends a remarkable run since SpaceX's record-breaking stock market debut on Friday.

After soaring 20 per cent on its first full trading day, the company's shares have continued to attract strong investor demand, making it one of the most closely watched post-IPO performances in recent years.

Investor enthusiasm has been driven not only by SpaceX's core space and satellite businesses but also by its increasingly ambitious push into artificial intelligence.

On Tuesday, the company announced an all-stock acquisition of Cursor, a fast-growing AI coding assistant valued at $60 billion.

Cursor has emerged as a major player in the artificial intelligence software market, offering tools that can autonomously write and assist with software development.

The platform competes directly with leading AI coding products such as Claude Code and Codex.

According to the company, Cursor is already used by 64 per cent of Fortune 500 companies, highlighting its growing influence in the enterprise software sector.

SpaceX had previously disclosed in April that it had secured rights to acquire Cursor. The acquisition is expected to strengthen the company's position in the increasingly competitive AI race and expand its capabilities across software development and automation.

The deal also adds to SpaceX's aggressive investment strategy in artificial intelligence. The company spent approximately $12.7 billion on AI-related initiatives in 2025 and another $7.7 billion during the first quarter of 2026.

The Cursor acquisition represents one of the largest AI transactions undertaken by the company to date.