The story behind the cartoon
OpenAI told SpaceX it will wind down the contract supplying its models to Cursor, with a proposed shutoff date of November 12, 2026 — the maximum notice the contract allows. Future models, including the upcoming Astra, will not be supplied to Cursor at all.
The reason is trust, not performance. OpenAI says it cannot be confident SpaceX will use its technology within its terms of service, citing Musk’s companies breaking contracts after the Twitter acquisition and Musk admitting under oath that xAI violated OpenAI’s terms.
Cursor says OpenAI models are only about 5% of its traffic, and developers can keep using their own API keys — the editor keeps running on other models.
The joke is the second cable: Altman yanks the plug while Musk sneaks an improvised cable into the socket behind his back, and the cheerful Cursor robot below keeps humming on its other cords — cut off, not dead.
