OpenAI ends Cursor deal after SpaceX buys coding startup

Cursor is one of the most popular tools programmers use to write code with AI help. On Friday, OpenAI said it's pulling the plug. Cursor's owner, SpaceX, bought the startup for $60 billion earlier this month. OpenAI says it doesn't trust a company run by Elon Musk to keep following its rules. Access to OpenAI's models inside Cursor ends Nov. 12.

This is really about Elon Musk and Sam Altman, not code. The two men run competing AI companies and have feuded publicly for years. Now that fight is spilling into software real people use every day. OpenAI hasn't accused SpaceX of breaking any specific rule. It's cutting Cursor off pre-emptively, over who owns it. That's a new kind of business risk. Your AI vendor can end your access over who bought your company, not anything you did.

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Will other AI companies start doing this too? Owning a rival's supplier is now grounds for losing access. Any company connected to Musk's growing empire has to wonder who's next. Cursor has more than two months to find a replacement before the Nov. 12 deadline.