OpenAI will cease providing models to Cursor following the acquisition by SpaceX.
OpenAI is terminating its contract to provide models to Cursor following SpaceX's $60 billion acquisition, with access being cut off on November 12 and the upcoming Astra model being withheld. In July, Cursor and SpaceXAI jointly released Grok 4.5, which is available on all plans in Cursor.
On Saturday, OpenAI announced the end of its contract with Cursor, specifying that the access will cease on November 12. The stated reason is notably straightforward: OpenAI indicated it cannot be sure that SpaceX will adhere to its technology's terms of service, citing past experiences with Elon Musk's companies breaching contracts.
Bloomberg was the first to report on this matter, and OpenAI later shared the same information on X and its website. Two reasons were mentioned, both tied to previous actions. OpenAI claims that SpaceX's acquisition of Twitter violated its terms, and that xAI breached them in a manner Musk acknowledged in a sworn statement this year.
The acquisition was finalized this month, with SpaceX completing the $60 billion all-stock purchase of Cursor, a deal initially agreed upon in June. OpenAI stated that it provided the maximum notice allowed under its contract, approximately two and a half months. The Astra model will not be provided to Cursor at all, and OpenAI expressed its willingness to assist developers transitioning away.
However, the leverage in this situation may not be as significant as it appears. Cursor and SpaceXAI collaborated to launch Grok 4.5 in July, which Musk referred to as Opus-class, and it is available in Cursor across all plans.
Thus, OpenAI is removing a supplier from a company that now controls a leading lab, a move that costs Cursor less than it would have in June, when the acquisition was still in agreement. However, the impact on developers is tangible. Europe has established regulations addressing this type of dependency, allowing cloud customers to switch providers with two months' notice and transfer their assets within 30 days since September 2025. Starting January 2027, providers cannot impose charges for such transitions.
It remains uncertain whether these regulations will apply to this situation. The definitions broadly cover as-a-service models, but it has yet to be determined if a model API qualifies as one.
There is also a notable gap in these regulations. The switching policies protect customers wishing to leave a provider, not those whose provider opts to withdraw. No provisions were drafted for a supplier that chooses to leave.
This is where European developers using Cursor currently find themselves: facing seventy-five days of notice, dictated by a contract they never encountered, without any statutory support behind it.
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OpenAI will cease providing models to Cursor following the acquisition by SpaceX.
OpenAI will cease providing models to Cursor on November 12, following SpaceX's acquisition of the company. Cursor has already shipped Grok 4.5, which was developed by SpaceXAI in July.
