Cursor is Building a General-Purpose AI Agent to Rival Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work
Cursor, the coding tool used across two-thirds of the Fortune 500, is quietly developing a general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) agent called Sand, set to compete with Anthropic’s Claude Cowork and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Work. But with Elon Musk’s SpaceX acquiring Cursor for $60bn, the future of Sand hangs in the balance.
The Race to Automate the Office
July 13, 2026 – 4:07 pm
The competition to automate office tasks has intensified with a third player entering the market. While Cursor made its name as a tool for software developers, it is now creating Sand, aimed at general office workers.
According to The Information, Sand is designed to handle various tasks such as answering emails and texts, managing spreadsheets, organizing documents, and even assisting in engineering work. The company began internal testing of Sand in late June, utilizing computing power leased from SpaceXAI, which Musk’s company launched in April.
A Three-Way Fight for the Office
In a crowded week, Anthropic released an update to Claude Cowork, expanding its functionality to mobile and web platforms, while OpenAI launched ChatGPT Work, powered by its GPT-5.6 model. Cursor aims to differentiate itself with Sand, leveraging its existing integrations through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard introduced by Anthropic in 2024.
From Coders to Everyone
Cursor’s shift is significant as it moves from focusing solely on software engineers to catering to a broader audience of professionals in finance, HR, and marketing. Sand could enable tasks like deploying landing pages rather than merely drafting them.
The Musk Factor
The future of Sand is intertwined with the SpaceX-Cursor acquisition. While Cursor has been leasing SpaceXAI compute power since April, the decision to launch Sand may ultimately rest with Elon Musk. This raises the question: whose model will end up reading your email?