Anysphere, founded in 2022 by Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark, Aman Sanger and Michael Truell, has been approached by investors about a deal that would more than double its valuation in a new funding round to $18 to $20 billion, according to Bloomberg. Sualeh Asif, 25, the Chief Product Officer and co-founder, hails from Karachi, Pakistan. He studied at Nixor College in Karachi before going to the United States in 2018. He met the other three co-founders while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). One-half (Sualeh Asif and Aman Sanger) of the startup’s founding team is of South Asian origin. The company moved to San Francisco soon after its founding in 2022.
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Sualeh Asif, Anyshphere Inc's Pakistani-American Founder |
Anysphere’s lead product is an AI code editor called Cursor AI. It works as an AI assistant that writes code and also anticipates code developer's needs, identifies inefficiencies, and helps solve complex problems with relative ease. On his personal website sualehasif.me, Sualeh says: "I’m building Cursor to discover a new way to write code. I owe much of my fun to my friends and MIT. I am extremely excited about the new capabilities of LLMs and applications to code tools".
In early 2024, Anysphere raised $60 million in a Series A financing (co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital and included Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe) at a $400 million post-money valuation, according to TechCrunch. It was followed by a $105 million Series B funding round in December 2024. Earlier this month, Anysphere said it raised $900 million at a valuation of $9.9 billion, including the new investment, in a round led by Thrive Capital. Andreessen Horowitz, Accel and DST Global also participated.
Several investors have recently floated a funding offer that would value Anysphere at $18 billion to $20 billion, according to Bloomberg. The startup's revenue has recently surpassed $500 million on an annualized basis.
“We have not engaged with or spoken with any investors about financing since our Series C,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Truell wrote to Bloomberg in response to a query. “We’re not focused on fundraising and have lots to do on building the technology, product, and team. Cursor can be made much more useful, and we’re spending time on that.”
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7 comments:
Salam Sir
Thanks for sharing this great news, I actually learned about this Pakistani student few days ago and wanted to share this news with you.
Sir the question is that how efficient is Cursor AI? I mean can the Cursor AI which is a code editor even do automatic debugging of the programs written in either python or prolog?
In which programming language can we actually write a program in Cursor AI?
Thanks
I use Cursor every day now. This is a huge accomplishment!
I have developed in Kotlin, Java and Ruby using Cursor AI. It appears to support the most popular languages, I have not yet encountered a language it does not know. I asked it which languages it knows and it included Python and Prolog in the list. When prompted to solve a specific problem, Cursor will read through the code and reason about the solution by itself and make the code changes on your file system. It can then proceed to compile and run unit tests and programs. When it encounters build errors, it will try to fix them by itself. Through prompts, you can give it feedback to help it iterate on an acceptable solution. It can also write unit tests for your code by itself and take feedback. I asked it about its abilities to debug with Python and Prolog. It told me that it does not support interactive debugging specifically.
Python Debugging Support:
What Cursor AI can do:
Code analysis: Identify syntax errors, logical issues, and potential bugs through static analysis
Error explanation: Explain error messages and suggest fixes
Code review: Point out common programming mistakes and anti-patterns
Refactoring suggestions: Propose improvements to make code more robust
Test generation: Help create test cases to catch bugs
What it cannot do:
Runtime debugging: Cannot step through code execution, set breakpoints, or inspect variables at runtime
Interactive debugging: No debugger integration like pdb, ipdb, or IDE debuggers
Memory inspection: Cannot examine memory state or call stack during execution
I got a similar answer regarding its Prolog debugging abilities.
It is designed to be very similar to VSCode, a popular code editor for programmers. It uses all the same keyboard shortcuts. It is not necessarily like IntelliJ which does support runtime debugging for Java.
The Void IDE, Open-Source Alternative to Cursor, Released in Beta
https://www.infoq.com/news/2025/06/void-ide-beta-release/
A new open-source AI-powered code editor, Void IDE, was recently released in beta, positioning itself as a privacy-focused and free alternative to popular closed-source AI editors like Cursor and GitHub Copilot. Backed by Y Combinator, Void IDE is a fork of Visual Studio Code. While Microsoft recently announced plans to open Source its GitHub Copilot Chat Extensionpossibly in a few months, the beta release is available now for the community to fiddle with.
The primary motivation behind Void IDE is to address concerns surrounding the privacy and cost associated with proprietary AI coding tools. Closed-source editors may require sending private code data through their backends, raising privacy issues and leading to ongoing subscription costs. While the backend may often keep only embeddings computed from the code, the original code may sometimes be recoverable. As the authors of the paper Mitigating Privacy Risks in LLM Embeddings from Embedding Inversion explain:
The surge in popularity of embedding vector databases in LLMs has been accompanied by significant concerns about privacy leakage. Embedding vector databases are particularly vulnerable to embedding inversion attacks, where adversaries can exploit the embeddings to reverse-engineer and extract sensitive information from the original text data.
Void IDE aims to provide options for keeping developers in control of their data. Void IDE can leverage various Large Language Models (LLMs), supporting direct integrations with services like Claude, GPT, and Gemini, as well as local model hosting via Ollama. This ensures that AI processing can happen locally or via direct API calls, avoiding a third-party middleman.
Void IDE offers a range of AI-centric features familiar to users of tools like Cursor. These include inline code editing, contextual AI chat, and code generation. The editor also features advanced capabilities like file system awareness for codebase-wide context and the ability to view/edit the underlying prompts sent to the AI.
Being a fork from VS Code, Void IDE is able to let its users migrate their themes, key bindings, and settings.
Developers on Hacker News and Reddit expressed interest, particularly regarding its open-source nature and privacy stance. Discussions include comparisons to other AI coding tools and editors. Some developers expressed skepticism about the proliferation of VS Code forks, with others asking why not use an extension instead. The project is actively developed, with the team encouraging contributions from the community to shape its future roadmap.
Salam Mam Amber
I hope you are doing well, are you sure that AI cursor can even detect logical errors as well as syntax error?
Other question, does AI cursor actially supports both programs created in python and prolog?
Last question, does the AI cursor has a built in interpreter program that actually reads through the programs and searches for errors?
Thanks
Maybe open source VOID IDE will be the next hot thing, they will need to prove themselves in the market. Cursor also looks and feels like a VScode fork.
Search Labs | AI Overview
In June 2025, Pakistan launched its first AI-dedicated data center in Karachi. This facility, developed by Data Vault Pakistan, aims to support the country's growing AI ecosystem by providing high-performance computing, GPU-as-a-service, and secure cloud infrastructure. It's notable for being Pakistan's first green data center dedicated to AI, powered entirely by solar energy. The data center intends to accelerate Pakistan's national AI strategy and empower local innovators and researchers.
While Nvidia's specific involvement in this particular data center isn't detailed in the provided text, Nvidia does have a significant presence in the broader AI data center market and supports AI initiatives in the Middle East region. For example, Nvidia is collaborating with Humain to build AI data centers in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, Nvidia has partnered with Ooredoo to provide AI hardware to data center clients across the Middle East. This suggests a potential for future collaborations between Nvidia and Pakistan's AI data center initiatives, although no direct partnership is currently mentioned in the provided information. It's worth noting that the Pakistan government is allocating 2,000 MW of electricity to support AI data centers and Bitcoin mining, highlighting a strategic focus on digital innovation.
In summary, Pakistan has taken a significant step in establishing its AI infrastructure with the launch of the AI-dedicated data center in Karachi. While there's no mention of Nvidia's direct involvement in this specific facility, their regional presence and collaborations in the AI data center market suggest potential for future interactions.
Cursor AI Makes Its Move in Pakistan.
Cursor’s ambassador Yahya Qureshi has announced the first Cursor event in Islamabad, set to kickstart a local movement in AI-powered coding.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Qureshi shared his enthusiasm for fostering an engaged developer community, highlighting Cursor’s role in transforming not only how developers code, but how they think.
https://www.techjuice.pk/cursor-launching-in-pakistan-soon-confirmed-by-the-local-ambassador/
Sharing his excitement on LinkedIn, Yahya Qureshi revealed plans to launch Cursor’s community-building efforts in Pakistan, starting with an event in Islamabad that will focus on AI coding for developers. As an advocate for speeding up execution of the best ideas, he praised Cursor for transforming not just how developers code, but how they think and create.
Qureshi said the Islamabad event will bring AI coding for developers to the forefront through interactive meetups, hands-on sessions, and Q&A opportunities with top engineers. His goal is to cultivate a welcoming environment where anyone serious about building innovative products can learn and thrive.
The upcoming gathering has sparked anticipation in Pakistan’s tech circles, eager to explore how AI can elevate their development processes. With Cursor leading the charge, the Islamabad event promises to be the first step in a larger mission to empower local developers with cutting-edge AI tools.
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Search Labs | AI Overview
Cursor, an AI-powered code editor co-founded by Pakistani entrepreneur Sualeh Asif, is gaining traction in Pakistan's developer ecosystem. The platform, which acts as a smart pair programmer, is seen as a potential game-changer for developers in Pakistan due to the country's growing tech talent pool. Cursor is also now free for students, making it accessible to a wider range of users in Pakistan.
Here's why Cursor is relevant to Pakistan:
Rising Tech Talent:
Pakistan has a large and growing pool of talented developers, and Cursor's AI-powered tools can help them build software more efficiently.
AI-Powered Coding:
Cursor's ability to understand and work with entire codebases, write code, and debug, positions it as a valuable tool in the evolving landscape of AI-driven software development.
Student Accessibility:
The free student version of Cursor allows aspiring developers in Pakistan to experiment with AI-assisted coding and enhance their skills.
Sualeh Asif's Pakistani Origin:
The success of Cursor, co-founded by a Pakistani entrepreneur, serves as an inspiration for other developers in the country.
Ecosystem Growth:
Cursor's presence in Pakistan contributes to the overall growth of the local tech ecosystem by providing access to cutting-edge tools.
Global Trend:
As AI continues to reshape software development, tools like Cursor are becoming increasingly important, and Pakistan is well-positioned to benefit from this trend.
In essence, Cursor's arrival in Pakistan aligns with the country's growing focus on technology and its potential to leverage AI for development and innovation.
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