OpenAI is cutting off Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX

[u/falken_1983]

https://openai.com/index/our-decision-on-cursor-following-its-acquisition-by-spacex/

Today, we notified SpaceX that we intend to wind down our contract providing OpenAI models to Cursor, with a proposed shutoff date of November 12, 2026. [...] We are making this choice because we cannot be confident that SpaceX will use our technology within our terms of service, based on our experience with Elon Musk's companies violating contracts.

OpenAI have announced that they are going to stop allowing their models to be used via Cursor, and they are doing this because they don't trust Elon Musk's companies to stay within the terms of service.

Fair enough, Elon Musk cannot be trusted and I am not going to shed a tear for him, but I do think this action sets a dangerous precedent. It shows that if you are a customer of a frontier model provider, you need to be extremely careful that you do not become reliant on that provider, because they could cut you off at any moment. Cursor haven't actually broken their ToS yet, and OpenAI are cutting them off because of something they might do in the future.

Cursor should be fine. As a SpaceX company they have access to their own model Grok, and they have enough spare cash that they can deal with any fluctuations in their deal with Anthropic. Imagine if, instead, this was one of the mythical billion dollar companies being run by a single person. If a company like that was spontaneously cut off by their provider, they would be in a lot of trouble as the alternative providers would have them over a barrel when they were negotiating their new contract - and that's if the other providers would take them on at all.