FT : SpaceX obtains right to buy AI start-up Cursor for $60bn

SpaceX obtains right to buy AI start-up Cursor for $60bn
Elon Musk’s rocket and AI conglomerate is seeking to catch up to rivals OpenAI and Anthropic

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has struck a deal for the right to acquire code-editing start-up Cursor for $60bn in an attempt to catch up with AI rivals months before the rocket maker’s initial public offering.

SpaceX said the companies were working together “to create the world’s best coding and knowledge work AI” and that it had an option to buy Anysphere, Cursor’s parent company, for $60bn this year.

If SpaceX decides not to proceed, it would pay $10bn “for our work together” — which would in effect be among the largest termination fees in history.

Cursor was valued at $29bn in November and has been one of the fastest-growing start-ups in Silicon Valley since it launched in 2022.

Musk is hoping Cursor’s customer base of software engineers and expertise in AI coding tools will help him reel in AI rivals whose models have outstripped those produced by his xAI lab.

The billionaire founded xAI in 2023 to take on OpenAI and Anthropic, and has since merged the group with SpaceX, which is gearing up for a record-breaking IPO this summer.

The Tesla chief executive has embarked on a dealmaking spree over the past year, melding parts of his disparate business empire into a single entity spanning space exploration, infrastructure, social media and AI.

He merged his social media platform X with xAI in an all-stock deal in March last year, before rolling both into SpaceX in February in a deal valuing the combined entity at $1.25tn.

The flurry of deals over the past 12 months — including Tuesday’s announcement — adds to the challenge for public market investors and underwriters appraising the combined group’s valuation.

SpaceX’s IPO is expected to value the group at $1.75tn, the largest flotation of all time.

Acquiring xAI has complicated SpaceX’s financial picture. The AI lab lost $6.4bn in 2025, up from $1.56bn in 2024, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s financials.

Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet business, posted operating profit of $4.42bn last year, up from $2bn in 2024, they added.

Musk has proposed maintaining control over the entire group via special voting shares, the person added.

The deal with Cursor would bring SpaceX a “leading product and distribution to expert software engineers”, the company said.

Cursor will make use of SpaceX’s massive computing resources to continue developing its own coding model Composer, launched late last year.

Oskar Schulz, Anysphere’s president, said: “We think SpaceX is basically the best company in the world when it comes to building out compute. The feats they have been able to pull off are extraordinary.”

Musk has been behind some of the most ambitious infrastructure projects of recent years, including the supercomputer Colossus in Memphis, which was developed in 122 days.

He has staked SpaceX’s future on developing data centres in space, arguing that satellites fed by solar energy and naturally kept cool in orbit will be the cheapest way to power AI.

Cursor’s annualised revenue surpassed $2bn earlier this year on the strength of its tools designed to increase the productivity of software engineers. The company uses AI models built by OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and Google to power these products.

Its business has been squeezed as these leading labs rapidly rolled out new versions of their own coding models, such as OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Code.

Cursor has developed its own Composer model. It emerged last month that the newest version of Composer was built on top of an open-source model from Chinese start-up Moonshot AI.

FT : BHP strikes China iron ore deal after months of talks

BHP strikes China iron ore deal after months of talks
Mining company firms up copper guidance in Mike Henry’s final results as chief executive

BHP has struck a deal with China’s powerful state-owned minerals buyer after months of intense talks that barred Chinese steel mills from purchasing some of its iron ore.

The Australian mining company said on Wednesday that talks with China Mineral Resources Group, the centralised purchasing agency that controls most of the country’s metals imports, had been “concluded” without providing more detail on the agreement.

Mike Henry, BHP’s outgoing chief executive, and Brandon Craig, who takes over in July, travelled to China this month to meet officials and steel industry partners.

The deal, which is expected to run to 2027 according to one person familiar with the arrangement, resolves a key uncertainty for BHP.

Its third-quarter production report showed that Jimblebar iron ore shipments — the grade targeted by China Minerals Resources — almost halved compared with the second quarter and had declined by 10 per cent in the first nine months of the year.

However, that shortfall was made up by a stronger performance at BHP’s other iron ore mines, with overall production up 2 per cent. 

JPMorgan said in a note that the China Minerals Resources deal was a “key positive” given iron pricing had remained “solid” during the quarter. 

The results, which also showed strong copper and gold production, were the final set of numbers delivered by Henry, who has run the world’s largest mining company since 2020. BHP said that copper production — a key part of Henry’s growth strategy — would be at the upper end of its guidance.

Henry said the refocusing of the business, including the sale of some coal mines and striking offtake deals for precious metals, had strengthened its balance sheet at a time of global uncertainty. 

“Our centralised procurement capability and our low-cost operations have positioned us advantageously in the face of industry-wide pressure on the cost of energy and consumables as a result of the conflict in the Middle East,” he said.

The war has hit the mining sector in countries including Australia as supplies of diesel and other vital ingredients including sulphuric acid have been constrained. The largest companies have thus far been able to absorb the impact though. 

Rio Tinto said this week that its copper production had risen 9 per cent and that the direct impact of higher fuel and supply costs had been “limited”.

BHP shares were almost 1 per cent higher in Sydney on Wednesday and have gained more than 22 per cent this year, valuing the company at A$284bn.

>>> US After Hours Summary: MANH +9.1%, MCRI +3.6%, PEGA +2.9% higher on earning

After Hours Summary: MANH +9.1%, MCRI +3.6%, PEGA +2.9% higher on earnings; GTLB +5.1% on deeper integration with AWS; SON -8.6%, CYH -8.1%, CALX -5% lower on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: MANH +9.1%, AXG +8.2%, MCRI +3.6%, PEGA +2.9%, ADC +2.7%, WAL +1.7%, TFIN +1.2%, UAL +1.1%, RRC +1%, EQT +0.6%, ISRG +0.5%, NLY +0.3%, EWBC +0.1%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: GTLB +5.1% (deepens integration with Amazon Web Services), AMRZ +2% (shareholders approved all proposals), IMRX +2% (to present new survival data), OTIS +1.9% (increases dividend), ADBE +1.9% (authorizes new $25 bln share repurchase program), VICI +1.6% (new separate triple-net lease with an affiliate of Clairvest), ASRT +1.3% (provides update on Garda Therapeutics tender process), HBAN +1.1% (expands presence in Texas), TMQ +1.1% (commencement of permitting for high-grade Artic project in Alaska), LLY +0.6% (LLY to terminate license and collaboration agreement with RIGL), TOL +0.5% (to acquire substantially all the assets of Buffington Homes of Arkansas), META +0.5% (commences construction on $1+ bln data center in Oklahoma, according to Reuters), NOC +0.5% (files mixed securities shelf offering), BBOT +0.4% (presents preclinical data), JAZZ +0.3% (to present data at ASCO 2026), RVMD +0.1% (to present data for Daraxonrasib)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: SON -8.6%, CYH -8.1%, CALX -5% (also increases share repurchase authorization by $100 mln), DRVN -3.8%, COF -2.2% (also reports March card metrics), WFRD -2.2%, IBKR -1.8%, OZK -1.4%, CB -1%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: TH -10.4% (announces launch of 7 mln share offering by selling shareholders), RIGL -4% (LLY to terminate license and collaboration agreement with RIGL), ASND -2.3% (has called $575 mln of convertible notes for redemption), KR -0.1% (files mixed securities shelf offering)

FT : Ofcom to probe Telegram over claims of child sexual abuse material on app

Ofcom to probe Telegram over claims of child sexual abuse material on app
Two teen chat sites are also being separately investigated by online safety watchdog

In an update on its work under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom also said that six file-sharing providers had withdrawn their services from the UK after concerns were raised over the safety measures being taken to prevent offenders from disseminating abuse material.

Telegram said: “Telegram categorically denies Ofcom’s accusations. Since 2018, Telegram has virtually eliminated the public spread of [child sexual abuse material] on its platform through world-class detection algorithms and co-operation with NGOs. We are surprised by this investigation and concerned that it may be part of a broader attack on online platforms that defend freedom of speech and the right to privacy.”

Teen Chat said its platforms had “active human moderation, automated tools in place and easy-to-use reporting tools provided for users to utilise” and said it disagreed “with Ofcom’s position that we have not done enough”.

It added: “Unfortunately, our previous historical evidence has shown that, if grooming is attempted, it is done by redirecting users to another platform.”

FT : CATL claims 6-minute charge and 1,500km range for new electric vehicle batt

CATL claims 6-minute charge and 1,500km range for new electric vehicle batteries
Chinese group also slashes charging time in race against BYD for electric vehicle battery supremacy

CATL has developed a battery capable of allowing an electric vehicle to drive 1,500km on a single charge, the Chinese group claimed on Tuesday, as it challenges BYD for supremacy on range and charging speed.

The company’s latest version of its condensed Qilin battery has a greater range than the distance by road from London to Barcelona and marks a leap from the 1,000km limit of its previous edition.

CATL also released an upgrade to its Shenxing, which can charge from 10 per cent to 98 per cent in six-and-a-half minutes, an improvement from the previous edition which charged from 5 per cent to 80 per cent in 15 minutes. It is also considerably faster than the nine minutes taken for BYD’s latest Blade battery, which was unveiled last month, to charge from 10 to 97 per cent.

CATL and BYD, which together account for more than half of the global EV battery market, are pouring billions of dollars into research and development, targeting innovations in cell chemistry and manufacturing.

“The boundaries of electrochemistry are still far from being reached, and the possibilities of materials science are still far from being exhausted,” Robin Zeng, CATL’s billionaire founder, told reporters and investors in Beijing on Tuesday.

The companies hope their technological advancements will help eliminate persistent consumer concern that EV batteries can take too long to charge, die on a long journey or fail to work in extreme heat and cold.

However, a sharp fall in battery costs, along with CATL and BYD’s rapid advancements, is helping to cement China’s dominance over the technology that is key to both EVs and energy storage systems.

CATL said it would expand investment to support the government’s build-out of battery swapping and charging infrastructure across China.

The company plans to build 100,000 charging and swapping stations, working with a group of Chinese carmakers, by the end of 2028. And it promised to better integrate charging and swapping stations into China’s electrical system.

CATL also said it would by the end of the year start mass producing sodium-ion batteries, a new cell technology that will help reduce reliance on lithium, cobalt and nickel.

CATL made the announcements ahead of the Beijing auto show, where 1,400 new car models will be on display.

Despite US-China tensions and concerns over the state of the Chinese economy, CATL has attracted renewed investor interest in recent weeks after the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran strengthened expectations of a long-term boost for clean energy.

Its Hong Kong-listed shares have risen more than 40 per cent this year and are up almost 140 per cent over the past 12 months.

FT : Oil market has lost a billion barrels due to Iran war, Vitol boss warns

Oil market has lost a billion barrels due to Iran war, Vitol boss warns
Top energy traders warn of unprecedented hit to global energy supplies

The oil market will lose at least 1bn barrels of crude and refined products due to the war in the Middle East, even if the conflict ends tomorrow, the head of the world’s biggest independent oil trader has warned.

Russell Hardy, who has run Vitol since 2018, said the attacks on energy infrastructure in the Gulf and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz had resulted in the loss of roughly 12mn barrels of oil production per day since the US and Israel first bombed Iran at the end of February.

“In round numbers, the 1bn [barrels] is baked in now because we have probably lost 600mn to 700mn at this stage, but by the time things get moving again, if they get moving again, it takes time to bring all [the shut or damaged infrastructure] back,” Hardy told the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne.

Hardy said the war was without doubt the biggest disruption in energy markets in his almost 40-year career, eclipsing the smaller and shorter shock in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

“That had a lot of the same aspects in terms of refinery outages, crude oil outages, but it wasn’t on the same scale and, unlike today . . . the market was smaller and there was more spare [production] capacity,” Hardy said. “Today, all of the spare capacity is behind the Strait of Hormuz, so the impact is obviously very direct.”

At the FT conference, commodity traders have repeatedly warned that the fallout from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is far from over, even if the White House and Iran can agree a deal in the coming days.

Traders have warned of global food shocks due to low supplies of fertiliser following the loss of Middle East gas supplies and a slowdown in copper mining due to the loss of sulphuric acid from the Gulf, while the risk of energy shortages increases with every day the strait remains closed.

The loss of 1bn barrels is equivalent to roughly 10 days of global oil consumption and more than double the quantity released from strategic reserves in a bid to mitigate the impact on energy supplies.

Hardy was one of several senior oil traders and analysts at the FT conference to sound an alarm over the huge loss of supply, the effects of which are at present being felt most acutely in Asia, Africa and Australasia.

Gunvor chief executive Gary Pedersen warned of serious “ramifications” from the Strait of Hormuz’s continuing closure. “When you shut down that much energy through that supply chain for this long and potentially longer, the ramifications of this are real,” he said.

Frederic Lassere, head of research at Gunvor, predicted that the war would trigger a global recession if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened by the end of July.

“If we don’t get a reopening [of the strait] in three months’ time then this becomes a macro issue where the world falls into recession,” he said.

Lasserre was speaking alongside Saad Rahim, chief economist at Trafigura, who agreed that an estimated 1bn barrels of oil production had already been lost.

“I think we’re at a very critical inflection point,” he said, referring to planned peace talks between the US and Iran due to be held in Pakistan. “I think if there is a ‘resolution’ of this, whatever that looks like, [and the situation] does start to normalise, I think we have just about dodged a bullet.”

However, Rahim and others were sceptical of the capacity of the US to reach an agreement that leads to the swift reopening of the strait. 

Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said US equity markets were trading close to all-time highs in part because traders had wrongly bet on a swift resolution. “I think there’s also this bet that President [Donald] Trump could just sit in the White House and bring this to a close,” she said. “People keep saying, ‘well, he can Taco’, but again it takes two to Taco,” she added, referring to the acronym Trump Always Chickens Out, a reference to the president’s frequent policy U-turns.

“It’s not single decision maker dynamics,” she continued, noting that there was no guarantee how Iran would approach the negotiations. “Everyone acts like [Trump’s] the only one driving this bus at this point.”

In a best-case scenario in which 50 per cent of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has returned by the end of May, the market will still have lost 450mn barrels of clean refined products, such as diesel and gasoline, according to Amrita Sen, director of market intelligence at Energy Aspects. Unless high prices crushed demand, such a large amount of fuel would not be replaced until at least 2030, given there was no spare capacity in the global refining sector, she said.

>>> Stoxx 600 pre market indications

TAG Immobilien (TEG TH) +2.5%
TAG Immobilien Raised to Overweight at Barclays; PT 17.30 euros
Legal & General (LGI TH) +2.2%
Alstom (AOMD TH) +1.6%
Allianz (ALV TH) +1.2%
Allianz Raised to Buy at Goldman; PT 450 euros
SAP (SAP TH) +1.1%
TUI (TUI1 TH) +1%
Nokia (NOA3 TH) +1%
Airbus (AIR TH) +0.9%
Leonardo, Safran Cut at Jefferies, Land Defense Now Favored
ASML (ASME TH) +0.9%
Nemetschek (NEM TH) +0.9%
RENK Group (R3NK TH) -0.5%
UMG (0VD TH) -0.6%
Equinor (DNQ TH) -0.6%
Shell (R6C0 TH) -0.6%
Bawag (0B2 TH) -0.7%
Bawag 1Q Net Income Misses Estimates
Magnum Ice Cream (7RM TH) -0.7%
Magnum Ice Cream Cut to Neutral at BNP Paribas; PT 13 euros
Leonardo (FMNB TH) -0.7%
Leonardo, Safran Cut at Jefferies, Land Defense Now Favored
Thales (CSF TH) -1.5%
Thales Sales Beat as Iran Tensions Drive Strong Defense Demand
Safran (SEJ1 TH) -1.7%
Leonardo, Safran Cut at Jefferies, Land Defense Now Favored
Signify (G14 TH) -1.9%