OpenAI moves to end Cursor model contract after SpaceX acquisition

OpenAI says it has notified SpaceX that it intends to wind down the contract supplying OpenAI models to Cursor, proposing November 12, 2026, as the shutoff date.

If the wind-down proceeds, developers who select OpenAI models inside the Cursor coding platform would lose that route. Cursor’s pricing documentation currently lists GPT-5.6 Luna, GPT-5.6 Sol and GPT-5.6 Terra among the third-party models available through the platform, and the reviewed Cursor documentation sets out no transition plan for teams that use them.

OpenAI published the decision on August 28: “Today, we notified SpaceX that we intend to wind down our contract providing OpenAI models to Cursor.” It said November 12 is the latest cancellation date available to it under the agreement and that it chose that date to give developers the maximum contractual notice.

OpenAI attributed the decision to its stated lack of confidence that SpaceX will use OpenAI technology within OpenAI’s terms of service. That rationale is OpenAI’s own account, and the allegations behind it have not been independently adjudicated.

OpenAI said its custom agreement with Cursor contains a limited cancellation window that opens after a change of control. It also said it will not provide future models to Cursor while keeping the cancellation date at the latest point available.

Cursor announced on August 14 that it had been acquired by SpaceX. DataPhoenix previously covered the SpaceX agreement to acquire Cursor maker Anysphere.

Neither SpaceX nor Cursor has published a response to OpenAI’s account or the proposed date in the sources reviewed for this story. November 12 remains OpenAI’s proposal rather than an agreed cutoff.

Cursor documents several model suppliers. Its pricing pages and available-models documentation describe a lineup spanning OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, SpaceXAI and Cursor’s own models, with third-party models billed through a separate “Other Models” usage pool. The Router documentation lists GPT-5.5 alongside Claude Opus 5, Grok 4.5 and Claude Fable 5.1. It says blocked models are skipped and the router falls back to an allowlisted alternative where one exists. The Router selects which model answers a request, so it can replace a skipped model automatically when an allowlisted alternative is available.

One route to OpenAI models runs outside the supply contract. Cursor documents a bring-your-own-key option for OpenAI, but limits custom-key support to standard non-reasoning chat models and says custom keys work with chat models only, not tab completion. The reviewed sources do not establish whether that route would remain available after the direct supply contract ends. Cursor also says its zero-data-retention policy does not apply when customers use their own provider keys, so data handling follows the selected provider’s policy.