OpenAI said on August 28, 2026 that it has told SpaceX it intends to wind down the contract that supplies OpenAI models to Cursor. The proposed shutoff date is November 12, 2026, which OpenAI described as the maximum notice allowed under the agreement. The company said it is making the move because it cannot be confident SpaceX will use the technology inside OpenAI’s terms of service, based on its experience with Elon Musk’s companies violating contracts.

The note is aimed at developers who still get OpenAI models through Cursor, not at a sudden cutoff. OpenAI said it has worked with Cursor for nearly four years and has “enormous respect” for the team and the product. It also said it will not provide future models to Cursor, including the upcoming model it calls Astra.

Change of control and a short cancellation window

OpenAI said a custom contract is the usual way it works with a large partner such as SpaceX, so the integration can meet its terms and its safety rules at scale. The Cursor agreement, it wrote, gives OpenAI a limited window to cancel after a change of control. Cursor is now owned by SpaceX.

The company pointed to two earlier episodes. After Musk acquired Twitter, now part of SpaceX, OpenAI said the company broke the terms of their contract. It also said Musk admitted under oath earlier this year that xAI, now also part of SpaceX, had violated OpenAI’s terms of service, terms OpenAI described as similar to xAI’s own. Those claims sit in OpenAI’s announcement. They are the stated basis for pulling the plug, not an outside finding reproduced here.

OpenAI said the decision was difficult because it wants its models broadly available to developers. It also said advancing capabilities, and the need to keep Astra inside its terms, raised the cost of leaving the contract in place.

Decoded Take

This is less a product feud than a supply-chain break. Cursor became one of the main places developers meet OpenAI models. After SpaceX closed the acquisition, that distribution path sat inside a company group OpenAI already says it cannot trust on contracts. November 12 is far enough out that Cursor can reroute users to other labs. It is also soon enough that OpenAI keeps Astra off a rival’s stack. The pressure now sits on Cursor’s remaining model menu and on whether enterprises treat OpenAI-in-Cursor as a temporary setting rather than a default. Watch whether the shutoff date holds, and whether Cursor’s next model picker still treats OpenAI as a first-class option or as a compatibility leftover.