The capital landscape of the AI industry is undergoing a dramatic shake-up. Yesterday, several major news announcements were released in quick succession, not only showcasing the tech giants' strong demand for AI programming capabilities but also revealing the financial challenges behind the rapid growth of top model companies.
The most notable event was SpaceX's "big move" acquisition. On June 16, SpaceX announced that it had officially acquired Anysphere, the parent company of the AI coding tool Cursor, through a $60 billion stock-only deal. This transaction involves no cash payments and will be entirely settled with SpaceX's Class A common shares.
It is reported that SpaceX had signed a related call option agreement earlier this year and exercised it after the listing, with the closing expected to be completed in the third quarter. SpaceX clearly stated that this acquisition aims to combine its supercomputing cluster with Cursor's code model, to make up for the programming shortcomings of the Grok team and seize the technological high ground.
Meanwhile, the AI startup DeepSeek has also completed its first external funding round, with a funding scale of about 51 billion yuan (approximately 7.5 billion US dollars). This round of financing used a special transaction structure to ensure that the founder Liang Wenfeng maintains control of the company. The investor lineup is impressive, including personal investments from the founder, as well as support from industry giants such as Tencent, CATL, NetEase, JD.com, and IDG Capital, along with national-level industrial investment funds.
On the other side of the capital frenzy, OpenAI's financial report revealed the reality of "high growth and high losses" in the industry. Audit documents show that although OpenAI's revenue reached 13.07 billion US dollars in 2025, which is three times higher than the previous year, due to R&D expenditures of 19.18 billion US dollars, OpenAI's total expenses surged, resulting in a net loss of 38.5 billion US dollars, eight times more than the previous year. The loss includes a large non-cash loss caused by company restructuring. However, the market still holds an optimistic view of OpenAI's IPO prospects, valuing its leading position in AI infrastructure layout. The company currently holds over 73 billion US dollars in cash on its balance sheet.
In addition, ByteDance's AI strategy is also undergoing significant transformation. Although the daily active users of its Doubao App have exceeded 200 million, monetization remains challenging, with daily revenue below 10 million yuan, while daily computing costs reach tens of millions. According to reports, ByteDance has decided to adjust its strategic focus, shifting resources more towards enterprise products and the video generation model Seedance, which is currently making smooth commercial progress.
This wave of intense industry dynamics shows that the competition in the AI track has shifted from pure model capability comparisons to comprehensive competitions involving infrastructure integration, programming ecosystem building, and commercialization. The continuous influx of capital and the harsh reality of losses are pushing the entire AI industry into deeper waters.
