THE SHORT VERSION

OpenAI cuts Cursor off Thursday — it doesn't trust Musk to keep his word

Satirical cartoon: Sam Altman yanks the plug from an OPENAI socket while Elon Musk sneaks a second improvised cable into the socket behind his back, as a cheerful CURSOR robot keeps running on its other cords, on plain white paper. — Machine Age Cartoon · Zimbo

OpenAI told SpaceX it will wind down the contract supplying its models to Cursor, with a proposed shutoff date of November 12, 2026 — four days from now. It is giving the maximum notice the contract allows, and says 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.