Following SpaceX's recent agreement to acquire Cursor at a valuation of $60 billion, it has been revealed that a 5% stake in the AI coding startup, sold by FTX's bankruptcy estate for $200,000 in April 2023, would now be worth approximately $3 billion. This staggering difference in value represents one of the largest missed recoveries in crypto history.
The deal is part of Elon Musk's efforts to boost SpaceX's AI capabilities, particularly in the area of AI coding tools, where the company currently lags behind competitors. The acquisition is contingent on SpaceX's planned initial public offering, which aims to achieve a $2 trillion valuation. In 2022, Alameda Research, a trading firm founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, invested $200,000 in Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, acquiring a 5% stake. However, after FTX's collapse, the court-appointed estate sold the stake for the same amount, unaware of its potential for massive growth.
This oversight has significant implications for FTX's bankruptcy administration and creditors, who could have benefited from the substantial increase in value. The incident has also sparked debate about the handling of assets during the bankruptcy process, with Bankman-Fried arguing that the estate's decision to liquidate assets too quickly destroyed billions of dollars in potential value.
The remarkable trajectory of Cursor, which launched its AI coding product in 2023 and has since achieved an unprecedented valuation, serves as a prime example of the potential upside that FTX customers missed out on. While customers have been reimbursed in full, they did not receive the additional value that these assets accrued between the bankruptcy filing and the present day.