OpenAI Ends Cursor Access Citing SpaceX
OpenAI will cut off SpaceX-owned Cursor from its AI models in November, citing a lack of trust in Elon Musk's companies due to past contract violations.
OpenAI is ending its partnership with Cursor, cutting off the coding tool's access to its AI models on November 12. The decision comes two weeks after SpaceX completed its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor's parent company, Anysphere.
In a website post, OpenAI said the move was about trust, not technology. The company stated it cannot be confident SpaceX will use its technology within its terms of service, based on experience with Elon Musk's companies violating contracts. OpenAI pointed to X, now part of SpaceX, allegedly breaking terms of an existing OpenAI contract after Musk bought Twitter.
Legal Backdrop and SpaceX's Acquisition
The decision unfolds against the backdrop of ongoing litigation. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, left its board in 2018, and sued Sam Altman and Greg Brockman in 2024, arguing they abandoned the company's nonprofit mission. A federal jury sided with OpenAI in May, finding Musk waited too long to sue. Musk said he would appeal, calling the outcome a calendar technicality.
SpaceX's interest in Cursor predates that verdict. The company first struck a deal with Cursor in April, securing an option to acquire it for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for joint development work instead. The logic was straightforward: Cursor was paying retail prices to competitors Anthropic and OpenAI, while SpaceX had idle capacity on its Colossus supercomputer that Cursor could use. SpaceX exercised the option in June, days after its own IPO, and the deal closed in mid-August.
Musk moved quickly after the acquisition closed. On an all-hands call with over 1,000 Cursor employees, he reportedly told staff that SpaceXAI's Grok was playing catchup in the AI race. He singled out Anthropic as the company to catch. Cursor CEO Michael Truell now reports directly to Musk inside SpaceXAI.
Implications for Cursor's Future
Losing OpenAI's models leaves Cursor leaning harder on Anthropic's Claude, which has its own compute agreement with SpaceX. It will also rely more on Cursor's in-house Composer model, the one SpaceX's compute was meant to accelerate. OpenAI framed the November deadline as maximum notice under its contract and said it wants to help developers through the transition. Whether Anthropic makes a similar call is now an open question in AI coding.
Separately, Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep Earth livable for roughly a billion years using AI-controlled satellites. He argued that swapping fossil fuels for renewable energy will not be enough to protect humanity from severe extinction events occurring roughly every 100 million years. His proposed fix involves sentient, solar-powered satellites launched from the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult. These satellites would sit between Earth and the Sun, with onboard AI making continuous adjustments.
Musk shared a Grok-generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida's land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario. He said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living changes dramatically. Musk has raised similar concepts before, tying planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation is linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony as an insurance policy.
In other Musk company news, The Boring Company received approval from Clark County commissioners for 19 additional Vegas Loop stations, bringing the total entitled to 123. The company thanked the county for the vote and suggested its long-term vision could include a station in every driveway. The network currently has about 11 open stations and has carried more than 4 million passengers. A tunnel connection to Harry Reid International Airport is under construction and has slipped past its original first quarter target. The company is also racing to finish a Westgate to Paradise Road segment hoped to be running for November's Formula 1 race.
Finally, SpaceX announced it will establish a new launch facility called Starbase Louisiana near Vermilion Parish. CEO Elon Musk stated the site will ultimately have over a dozen launch towers, enabling more than 30 Starship flights per day, aiming to make it the biggest launch site on Earth.
