The bankruptcy estate of FTX sold a 5% stake in AI coding startup Cursor for $200,000 in April 2023, a stake that would now be valued at approximately $3 billion following SpaceX's agreement to acquire the company at a $60 billion valuation. This development has brought attention to the significant losses incurred by FTX's creditors due to the estate's decision to liquidate assets during the bankruptcy process.
SpaceX's acquisition of Cursor is part of Elon Musk's efforts to enhance his company's AI coding capabilities and close the gap with competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The deal has also sparked debate about the timing of FTX's asset sales, with founder Sam Bankman-Fried arguing that the estate's decision to sell assets too quickly destroyed billions of dollars in value for creditors. The sale of the Cursor stake has become a prime example of the potential losses incurred by FTX's creditors, with the stake's value increasing by a factor of 15,000 since its sale. This incident is likely to feature in ongoing discussions about the handling of FTX's bankruptcy and the campaign for a pardon by Bankman-Fried's family.