Sualeh Asif, a 26-year-old software engineer from Karachi, has entered the Forbes Billionaires List, becoming the fourth richest person in Pakistan. His inclusion in the global rankings follows the growth of his AI-powered startup Cursor which has now drawn the attention of Elon Musk’s SpaceX in a landmark $60 billion acquisition deal.
Asif co-founded Cursor alongside three colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In November 2025, the venture reached a valuation of $29.3 billion after securing $2.3 billion in a funding round.
The startup has reported over $1 billion in annualised revenue. Currently, the platform is used by millions of developers across 50,000 enterprises, including corporations such as Nvidia, Adobe, Uber, and Shopify.
That scale has now caught the eye of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which announced a deal giving it the right to acquire Cursor later this year for $60 billion.
If SpaceX does not proceed with the purchase, it will pay $10 billion for their work together. Along with OpenAI and Anthropic, Cursor is one of several Silicon Valley startups that have drawn waves of developers through AI-automated coding.
Asif represented the country at the International Math Olympiad (IMO) for three consecutive years between 2016 and 2018. He now resides in San Francisco, California, where he continues to manage the company’s operations.
