On Friday, OpenAI said it will end its partnership with Cursor, the AI coding assistant now owned by Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX).
Musk’s Contract Record Drives the Decision
OpenAI said it cannot be confident SpaceX will honor its terms of service, citing past violations by Musk-linked companies, including X, formerly Twitter, and xAI.
The company will shut off Cursor’s direct access to its models on Nov. 12.
In a blog post, OpenAI highlighted that during a federal court trial in Oakland, California, Musk testified under oath that xAI had used “distillation” techniques on OpenAI’s models to train its Grok chatbot, violating terms similar to xAI’s own.
“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,” the company said in the post.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.
The Sam Altman-led company said it faces a new level of accountability as it prepares to release its next model, Astra and wants assurance that the model will be used within its terms.
The move comes amid a turbulent relationship between Musk and Altman, with the two tech figures squaring off in multiple lawsuits through 2026.
Developers Face a Transition Window
Cursor, built by an applied AI research lab and software development company Anysphere, has used OpenAI models for nearly four years. OpenAI said it is granting the maximum notice allowed under the contract and pledged extra support for developers during the switch.
“We know that the people most affected by this decision are the developers who rely on OpenAI models in Cursor. We care about their experience in this transition and we’re ready to go above and beyond to support them,” OpenAI stated.
SpaceX closed its roughly $60 billion Cursor acquisition on Aug. 14, folding the coding tool into an AI portfolio built around xAI’s Grok models.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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