Move Over, OpenAI: How the Startup Behind Cursor Became the Hottest, Vibiest Thing in AI

Every so often, a flashy startup hurtles to the white-hot center of the Silicon Valley zeitgeist, presenting an extraordinary encapsulation of a moment in time. For the past few years, it has been OpenAI. Now, arguably, it’s Anysphere, an AI startup run by four founders, all under age 30, that remained little known until quite recently.

In quick order, Anysphere’s AI code-editing software, Cursor, has become the central part of tech’s latest buzz phrase: “vibe coding,” a nod to how Cursor makes coding less tedious and more like a mellow conversation, thanks to the software’s ability to edit and study code using prompts and natural language.

Tech’s top investors have been practically falling over themselves to get a piece of Anysphere. Last year, Andreessen Horowitz was so eager for a stake in the company that it offered Anysphere CEO Michael Truell and his co-founders GPUs for training their AI, a perk it provides to portfolio companies but rarely to startups it hasn’t invested in yet. And when Anysphere set out to raise its Series A funding, Andreessen Horowitz’s team met with the founders for fundraising talks just twice—at a formal pitch meeting, then a breakfast—before cutting them a check, a quicker timeline than is usual for most investors.