TRO | SpaceX Acquires 39-Month-Old AI Coding Platform Cursor For US$60 Billion

Plus, Fox Acquires Roku To Become A Streaming Powerhouse and HBO Max Brings AI Ads to Europe and Latin America

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Meliora Company
June 22, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

 Subscribe | 22nd June, 2026

In this fast-moving Vertical AI economy, headlines are everywhere but optimism is rare.

Here’s our take on 3 stories that will help you be relentlessly optimistic about the future.

1. SpaceX Acquires 39-Month-Old AI Coding Platform Cursor For US$60 Billion

SpaceX has agreed to acquire AI coding start-up Cursor in a US$60 billion all-stock deal, just days after its historic IPO. The acquisition is designed to bolster SpaceX's AI division - built around Elon Musk's xAI company, which merged with SpaceX earlier this year - after it ran into repeated controversies including allowing users to generate non-consensual deepfakes. Before SpaceX came knocking, Cursor had been on track to close a US$2 billion funding round from Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and Nvidia at a US$50 billion valuation. The deal is expected to close in Q3 2026.

Here’s why this matters: SpaceX used its IPO to make a promise to investors: a US$26 trillion addressable market in AI. Acquiring Cursor for US$60 billion in freshly minted stock, just days after listing, is how it intends to deliver on that promise. The move also reveals the tension at the heart of SpaceX's AI ambitions - xAI has the compute and the investment, but not the product credibility of a company like Cursor, which has built one of the most adopted developer tools in the market. For the broader AI coding industry, Cursor's exit signals something important: the most valuable developer tools are now acquisition targets for platforms with distribution ambitions, not just venture-backed businesses building toward their own IPOs.

2. Fox Acquires Roku To Become A Streaming Powerhouse

Fox Corporation has agreed to acquire Roku in a cash-and-stock deal valued at US$22 billion, combining Fox's sports, news, and entertainment content, including Tubi, with Roku's connected TV platform reaching over 100 million global streaming households. The deal makes Fox the third-largest player in US television by share of viewing, behind only YouTube and Netflix, and arrives at a moment Roku itself has described as a turning point: its 2026 predictions forecast AI-driven personalisation will fundamentally reshape how viewers discover content and how advertisers reach them on connected TV.

Here’s why this matters: The timing of this deal is as significant as the deal itself. Roku has publicly predicted that AI-driven personalisation will define the next chapter of streaming, shrinking discovery time, improving ad relevance, and drawing advertising budgets away from search and social. Fox inherits not just Roku's 100 million households, but its first-party audience data and the infrastructure to capitalise on that shift. For the advertising industry, the combination of Roku's data and Fox's premium live sports and news content creates a compelling alternative to the walled gardens of Google and Meta.

3. HBO Max Brings AI Ads To Europe And Latin America

HBO Max is rolling out Moments, a new AI-powered contextual advertising format, across Europe and Latin America by the end of 2026. Developed with KERV.ai, the system analyses visual, audio, and contextual signals within programming to identify themes, sentiment, and on-screen elements, allowing brands to align campaigns with content categories including cooking, fashion, beauty, and fitness rather than personal audience data. The format will launch across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Brazil, and Mexico. Initial US testing showed a 19% increase in viewer engagement and a 13% improvement in purchase intent compared with traditional advertising.

Here’s why this matters: Contextual advertising is having a significant moment. As privacy regulations tighten and third-party cookies continue their long exit from the industry, the ability to target audiences based on what they are watching rather than who they are is becoming a genuine competitive advantage. For brands and media buyers, the performance numbers from US testing are hard to ignore: a 19% engagement uplift over traditional formats is material. For the streaming industry more broadly, this is further evidence that the future of ad-supported streaming runs through AI, with platforms that can build smarter contextual tools sitting in a stronger commercial position than those that cannot.

Meliora Attends RedTech Summit 2026

Delegates from media companies around the world gathered on the Costa Brava of Spain over the weekend for the RedTech Summit.

Meliora Managing Partner, Clive Dickens, and Associates Anthony Abbott and Tony Moorey, led the room in a workshop illustrating how vertical AI can be used to redesign audio and radio business operations.

Six workshop groups focussed on growing audience, building revenue, and modernising business structures using tools that can be put into action with no code, today.

Still Curious?

Our Pursuit Of Better

Sarvam, India’s sovereign AI platform, has raised US$234 million at a US$1.5 billion valuation, and has become their newest AI unicorn. HCLTech is leading with US$150 million, alongside Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and Peak XV. Sarvam's platform now handles 2 million daily interactions, 10 million API calls, and transcribes 500,000 hours of audio each month across banking, insurance, government, and defence.

The AI music creation platform, Suno, has raised US$400 million at a US$5.4 billion valuation, more than doubling its value since November 2025. The platform now has 2 million paid subscribers and US$300 million in projected annual recurring revenue. The raise comes amid ongoing copyright litigation with Sony Music, while Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group have both opted for licensing partnerships instead.

Orbio, an enterprise start-up using AI agents to automate hiring, onboarding, and workforce management for frontline workers, has raised US$21 million in Series A funding led by Dawn Capital. Customers include Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC owner YUM! Brands. The company is targeting the 2.7 billion frontline workers in healthcare, retail, logistics, and hospitality who have historically had no access to AI tools.

Data We Rely On: AI Adoption

How fast are we adopting AI and related technologies?

Stanford Digital Economy Lab captures a rich picture of AI adoption data from across the world, and provides a snapshot indicator of the growing or shrinking importance of the technology in everyday and economic life.

The Pursuit of Better, Together

If this week’s newsletter sparked something, pass it on to a colleague. The best conversations often start with “You’ve got to read this”.