OpenAI's Decision on Cursor Following Its Acquisition by SpaceX

OpenAI has published its decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX: the lab notified SpaceX that it intends to wind down the contract that provides OpenAI models to the coding tool. The proposed shutoff date is November 12, 2026. OpenAI says it is giving the maximum notice provided by the contract so developers can retain access for as long as possible. The company calls the decision incredibly tough, because it wants its models broadly available for developers.

OpenAI says it cannot be confident that SpaceX will use its technology within OpenAI's terms of service, based on its experience with Elon Musk's companies violating contracts. For a large partner like SpaceX, OpenAI typically relies on custom contracts to ensure terms-of-service compliance and safety at scale. After Musk acquired Twitter, now part of SpaceX, OpenAI says the company broke the terms of that contract, alongside many others. Under oath earlier this year, Musk admitted that xAI, now also part of SpaceX, had violated OpenAI's terms of service — terms OpenAI notes are similar to xAI's own.

The custom agreement with Cursor gives OpenAI a limited time window to cancel after a change of control. As AI capabilities advance, OpenAI also says it has a new level of accountability to ensure its upcoming model, Astra, is used in accordance with its terms. Given that, OpenAI will hold the cancellation to the latest date it can while not providing future models to Cursor.

OpenAI has worked with Cursor for nearly four years and says it has enormous respect for the team, the product, and what they built for developers. The people most affected, OpenAI writes, are developers who rely on OpenAI models in Cursor. The company says it is ready to go above and beyond to support them through the transition. Read more in OpenAI's original post: Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX.