tech

May 1, 2026

Replit's Amjad Masad on the Cursor deal, fighting Apple, and why he'd rather not sell

At TechCrunch's sold-out StrictlyVC event in San Francisco on Thursday night, we covered a lot of ground in a short time, beginning with the question everyone in the industry is asking right now: in a world where rival Cursor is reportedly in talks to be acquired by SpaceX for $60 billion, is Replit also bound to sell?

Replit's Amjad Masad on the Cursor deal, fighting Apple, and why he'd rather not sell

TL;DR

  • Replit has experienced significant revenue growth, tracking toward a billion-dollar annual run rate.
  • CEO Amjad Masad prefers Replit to remain independent, contrasting it with rivals like Cursor that have negative gross margins.
  • Replit has a net revenue retention rate as high as 300% and is gross margin positive.
  • The company prioritizes serving non-technical users with a full-stack platform, including built-in, secure databases.
  • Masad is willing to take Apple to court over alleged lies regarding App Store update blocks.
  • Replit is considering investing in its own customers in exchange for equity, noting several successful startups originating from the platform.
  • Replit utilizes models from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI, with Anthropic leading in core agentic loops and Google excelling in price-performance.
  • Replit wins enterprise deals based on product and its inherent security features, distinguishing itself from 'vibe-coding' tools.

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