Cursor (operating as Anysphere) raised its Series D in November 2025 at a $29.3B post-money valuation, led by Accel and Coatue. That's a 3× step-up from the August 2024 Series B ($9.9B) in just over a year, driven by ARR growth from $200M to approximately $2B — one of the fastest ARR trajectories in enterprise software history.
Pre-Series B employees: the extraordinary position
Employees who joined before August 2024 — when the company was valued below $1B — are now sitting on positions that have appreciated 30–50× in implied fair value. Strikes in the $2–$5 range against a current implied fair value of $244/share (on approximately 120M fully-diluted shares) means each option carries $239+ of gross spread.
A 2,000-option grant at $4 strike from January 2024 is now worth approximately $480K of gross spread before tax and exercise costs.
Post-Series D cohort
Employees who joined in late 2024 or 2025 with strikes in the $80–$150 range still have meaningful in-the-money positions at the Series D price, but the asymmetric upside is smaller. Growth from $29B requires continued execution against increasingly well-funded competition (GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, and others).
Sustainability question
Cursor's valuation assumes continued explosive ARR growth. A re-rating downward — if growth decelerates or competitive pressure intensifies — could compress the multiple significantly. This is still a high-beta, early-stage risk profile despite the large headline number.
If you're at Cursor with early options, the question isn't 'should I exercise', it's 'how much can I afford to put at risk?'. Exercising and holding for long-term capital gains is the tax-optimal path — but only if you can stomach a 40–60% drawdown if growth slows.