Cursor eyes US$20b APJ opportunity as legacy software costs mount

Only 6% of Fortune 100 firms had an AI security strategy as Cursor pushes into Japan Singapore Indonesia and India.

Enterprises across Asia-Pacific and Japan are rethinking software development as AI forces them to cut legacy application costs, speed up delivery and manage new security risks.

Simon Green, President of Cursor, said global technology spending averages about US$6t a year, with software development accounting for about US$1.8t. Around 40% to 50% of that software spend, he said, goes to “keeping the lights on” for traditional applications.

“What we're seeing is a monumental shift now with organisations, from large enterprises all the way down to smaller organisations, saying we have to refactor the way those applications were developed because they were developed on older technology,” Green said.

That pressure is being felt across Japan, Australia, India and Southeast Asia, where companies are looking for faster development cycles and better cost control. Green said digital natives such as Grab and Rakuten are moving quickly, alongside banks with heavy technical debt.

Banks are a key test case because legacy systems can take months or years to redesign. Green said AI-assisted development can change the economics by reducing some work to days or weeks.

Security remains the constraint. Green, who has a cybersecurity background, said board and chief executive pressure pushed AI deployment forward before security planning caught up. “In the Fortune 100, every single one of them had an artificial intelligence strategy, but only 6% of those organisations had a security strategy,” he said.

Cursor is prioritising Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Australia and New Zealand, with Korea to follow. Singapore will serve as its regional centre. Green said the company sees a potential APJ revenue opportunity of around US$20b a year.

For Cursor, the opportunity is large, but its regional push will depend on whether enterprises can modernise software quickly without leaving security as an afterthought.