{"slug": "openai-cites-distrust-of-spacex-in-decision-to-drop-cursor-partnership", "title": "OpenAI cites distrust of SpaceX in decision to drop Cursor partnership", "summary": "OpenAI will cut off Cursor's access to its models on November 12, citing distrust of SpaceX, which acquired Cursor's parent company Anysphere for $60 billion. OpenAI cited Musk's history of broken contracts, including a lawsuit over X's alleged contract violations. The move leaves Cursor relying more on Anthropic's Claude and its in-house Composer model.", "body_md": "[Elon Musk](https://www.teslarati.com/category/elon-musk/)\n\n# OpenAI cites distrust of SpaceX in decision to drop Cursor partnership\n\nOpenAI will cut SpaceX-owned Cursor’s model access in November, citing Musk’s history of broken contracts.\n\nOpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced late Friday that it is ending its partnership with Cursor, cutting off the coding tool’s access to its models on November 12. The move comes two weeks after SpaceX completed its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor’s parent company, Anysphere, folding the popular AI coding assistant into [Elon Musk’s growing SpaceXAI division](https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-lanuches-terafab-tesla-spacexai-chip-factory/).\n\nIn [a post on its website](https://openai.com/index/our-decision-on-cursor-following-its-acquisition-by-spacex/), OpenAI said the decision came down to trust, not technology. “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 wrote. OpenAI pointed to two specific incidents: X, now part of SpaceX, allegedly breaking the terms of an existing OpenAI contract after Musk bought Twitter.\n\nThat lawsuit is the backdrop for all of this. Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015, left the board in 2018, and sued Sam Altman and Greg Brockman in 2024, arguing they abandoned the company’s nonprofit mission for profit. A federal jury sided with OpenAI in May, finding Musk waited too long to sue rather than ruling on the merits of his claims. Musk said at the time he would [appeal to the Ninth Circuit](https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-breaks-silence-openai-trial-decision/), calling the outcome a “calendar technicality” rather than a real judgment.\n\nSpaceX’s interest in Cursor predates that verdict by weeks. The company first struck a deal with Cursor in April, securing an option to acquire it for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for joint development work instead. As [Teslarati reported at the time](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-cursor-ai-coding/), the logic was straightforward: Cursor was paying retail prices to Anthropic and OpenAI, two of its most direct competitors, every time a developer used its product, while SpaceX had idle capacity on its Colossus supercomputer, roughly the equivalent of a million Nvidia H100 GPUs, that Cursor could use to train its own models instead. SpaceX [exercised the option in June](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-makes-first-acquisition-post-ipo-coding-leader-cursor/), days after its own IPO, and the deal closed in mid-August.\n\nOnce it closed, Musk moved fast. On an all-hands call with more than 1,000 Cursor employees, he reportedly told staff that SpaceXAI’s Grok was playing catchup in the AI race, unlike Tesla and SpaceX in their own markets, and singled out Anthropic as the company to catch. Cursor CEO Michael Truell now reports directly to Musk inside SpaceXAI.\n\nLosing OpenAI’s models leaves Cursor leaning harder on Anthropic’s Claude, which has its own compute agreement with SpaceX, and on Cursor’s in-house Composer model, the one SpaceX’s compute was supposed to accelerate in the first place. OpenAI framed the November deadline as maximum notice under its contract, and said it wants to “go above and beyond” to help developers through the transition. Whether Anthropic makes the same call is now the open question in AI coding.\n\nGene has been obsessed with cars since before he could legally sit in the front seat. Writer, researcher, unofficial CS support, accountant, native suit guy when needed, and overall stick poker. He approaches every story the way he approaches a road trip: with too much enthusiasm, not enough planning, and a surprisingly good outcome. [gene@teslarati.com](mailto:gene@teslarati.com)\n\n[Elon Musk](https://www.teslarati.com/category/elon-musk/)\n\n# County vote hands Elon Musk’s Vegas tunnel network a huge new target\n\nClark County approved 19 more Vegas Loop stations, pushing Boring Company’s entitled total to 123.\n\nThe Boring Company just got permission to nearly double how far Vegas Loop can reach. Clark County commissioners approved 19 additional stations for the underground transit system, bringing the total entitled to 123, the company said in[ a post on X](https://x.com/boringcompany/status/2092396130361606374) thanking the county for the vote. Elon Musk’s tunneling company also flagged the direction it sees the project heading long term. “Because Loop is point-to-point with no intermediate stops, in the limit, one could have a Loop station in every driveway,” the company wrote.\n\nThat framing captures how far the ambitions have moved. The Vegas Loop opened its first stretch of tunnel in 2021 and has grown its footprint through a string of county approvals since. In 2023, commissioners[ signed off on 18 additional stations](https://www.teslarati.com/the-boring-company-las-vegas-more-stations/), part of a plan that later doubled the system’s target to 69 stations across 65 miles. By the end of that year the company was describing a build out closer to[ 93 planned stations](https://www.teslarati.com/the-boring-company-vegas-loop-chinatown/). Last year the long term design called for 104 stations across 68 miles of tunnel. The new approval pushes that number to 123, another jump in a project that keeps outgrowing its own blueprints.\n\n[The Boring Company gets approval for more stations in Las Vegas]\n\nStation count on paper is still well ahead of what riders can actually use. As[ Teslarati reported earlier this month](https://www.teslarati.com/the-boring-companys-newest-vegas-station-has-a-permit-quietly-waiting-behind-it/), the network has about 11 open stations and has carried more than 4 million passengers since it began running, with newer stops at Fontainebleau and Sahara among the latest additions to the Strip corridor. A tunnel connection to Harry Reid International Airport remains under construction and has already slipped past its original first quarter target. The company is also racing to finish a Westgate to Paradise Road segment that Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill has said it hopes to have running in time for November’s Formula 1 race.\n\nThe gap between entitled stations and operating ones is where the real story sits. Regulatory approval gives Boring Company the legal runway to keep tunneling toward new resorts, residential pockets and eventually the airport, but building each connection still comes down to boring machines, fire safety sign offs and construction timelines that have slipped before. The company’s Prufrock series machines[ set an internal record in March](https://www.teslarati.com/the-boring-company-prufrock-2-completes-new-vegas-loop-tunnel/) with a 2.28 mile tunnel near Westgate, evidence that construction has been picking up even as the list of approved destinations grows faster than the tunnels themselves.\n\nMusk’s driveway comment reads as aspirational rather than a near term plan, but it fits how Boring Company has talked about Vegas Loop from the start: treat every approval as a floor, not a ceiling, and keep pushing county officials for room to dig.\n\n[Elon Musk](https://www.teslarati.com/category/elon-musk/)\n\n# SpaceX announces new Starbase for ‘thousands of Starship launches annually’\n\nSpaceX announced today that it would expand its launch capabilities into a new U.S. state: Louisiana.\n\nToday, SpaceX, in conjunction with the Louisiana Economic Development Office, said that it will establish a new launch facility, [which it will call Starbase, Louisiana](https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-spacex-starship-catch-timeline/). It will be located near Vermilion Parish, supporting thousands of launches each year, at least eventually.\n\nCEO Elon Musk commented by stating, “Starbase Louisiana will ultimately have over a dozen launch towers, enabling more than 30 Starship flights per day and making it the biggest launch site on Earth!”\n\nStarbase Louisiana will ultimately have over a dozen launch towers, enabling more than 30 Starship flights per day and making it the biggest launch site on Earth!\n\nSpaceX makes sci-fi real.\n\n[https://t.co/C7Ht0U12ba]— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)\n\n[August 25, 2026]\n\nThe expansion is SpaceX’s latest move to push its launch cadence to be more frequent than ever. SpaceX said that Starbase, Louisiana, will be built to “[support thousands of Starship flights a year](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-solved-biggest-challenge-elon-musk/),” with the first coming in 2029.\n\nSpaceX announced the new facility in partnership with the Louisiana Economic Development Office as it will bring a major influx of jobs and investments into the area. Currently, it will produce more than 3,000 new jobs in Louisiana, and SpaceX plans to invest at least $100 billion into the entire facility, ensuring that many jobs are created as a result.\n\n#### Environmental Responsibility\n\nSpaceX acknowledges the impact launches could have on marshlands, local wildlife, and water sources. Here’s how the company plans to help with the issues in Vermilion Parish:\n\n- Restoring the Shoreline: “In Vermilion Parish, the shoreline is eroding between 3.3 and 23 feet per year. We’re partnering with state and federal agencies to expand Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan and Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act projects, including Gulf shoreline protection breakwaters designed to reduce wave energy and slow loss along the Gulf edge.”\n- Rebuilding the Marshlands: “In working with the state, we’re planning thousands of acres of marsh creation using beneficial-use placement of dredged material and offshore sediment sources. Restoration will also include interior marsh bank stabilization and rebuilding marsh in remnant canals. These projects can reconnect fragmented wetlands, restore natural buffers against storms, and return habitat that has been lost to erosion and historic canalization.”\n- Preserving Coastal Wildlife: “Pecan Island and nearby wetlands are high-value habitat for migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, and other coastal wildlife. SpaceX is not developing the full footprint of the land and will preserve wetlands and wildlife habitat. At existing launch sites, waterfowl and other birds continue to use nearby habitat during operations. Working with wildlife agencies, landowners, and conservation groups, SpaceX will support monitoring and management so this habitat stays productive and hunting, fishing, birding, and other recreational activities that are part of this coast’s culture can continue.”\n\nSpaceX shares rose about 2.5 percent on the news.\n\n[Elon Musk](https://www.teslarati.com/category/elon-musk/)\n\n# Elon Musk just set a condition that could end Falcon 9 as we know it\n\nElon Musk says SpaceX will finally retire Falcon 9 once Starship flies reliably every week.\n\nElon Musk gave the clearest timeline yet for retiring Falcon 9, SpaceX’s workhorse rocket.\n\nThe comment came in [a reply on X](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2091287025555214632?s=20), where Musk wrote that “once Starship is flying reliably several times per week, it makes sense to shift super scarce SpaceX engineering and production resources to Starship to get launch rate to several times per day, which means winding down Falcon.” He was responding to physicist Casey Handmer, who noted that NASA is reportedly uneasy about SpaceX phasing out Falcon after building what Handmer called the most successful launcher ever, with the fleet nearing 1,000 total launches.\n\nNow\n\n[@SciGuySpace]reports NASA is in a tizzy because after running the most successful launcher ever for more than a decade and nearing 1000 launches,[@SpaceX]is planning to retire Falcon in favor of Starship in a few years.Sorry, NASA, you’ve had 15 years to burn down the…\n\n[https://t.co/uCNoMwK0v9]— Casey Handmer (@CJHandmer)\n\n[August 22, 2026]\n\nFalcon 9 is still SpaceX’s busiest vehicle by far. The company is on pace for roughly 140 to 145 Falcon flights this year, following 165 in 2025, president Gwynne Shotwell told Time earlier in 2026. She has already said Falcon flights would “tail off” as Starship comes online, while reports indicate that SpaceX has stopped booking new Falcon 9 launches past 2028 and halted production of some expendable Falcon hardware, according to Bloomberg.\n\nIt’s worth noting that Musk’s post is a condition, and not a countdown on when Falcon will retire. Starship has not yet flown weekly, let alone daily. Its most recent flight in July ended with a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, a milestone Musk pointed to earlier this month when he said the vehicle’s [heat shield problem was effectively solved](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-solved-biggest-challenge-elon-musk/). SpaceX towed that ship to Christmas Island for inspection, and the next flight, Flight 14, is aimed at putting Starship into orbit for the first time. A tower catch attempt for the upper stage has been pushed back to what Musk has called [“a few months” away](https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-spacex-starship-catch-timeline/).\n\n[SpaceX and a new Trump order that could rewrite the next decade of launches]\n\nThe gap between Falcon’s role today and Starship’s promised role tomorrow matters most to NASA. Falcon and its Dragon capsule remain the only way the agency rotates astronauts to and from the International Space Station, and Starship is not certified to carry NASA crews. Musk’s post did not address how that handoff would work if Falcon winds down before a crew-rated Starship variant exists. The timing lines up with Musk’s other recent Starship comments. Two days before the Falcon post, he told a different X user that SpaceX is aiming for more than 30 Starship launches a day by 2030, or roughly 10,000 a year, a figure tied to [the Trump administration’s new push](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-and-a-new-trump-order-that-could-rewrite-the-next-decade-of-launches/) for higher national launch cadence. Falcon, which took over a decade to reach its first 100 launches, was never built to approach that kind of volume.\n\nFor now, Falcon 9 keeps flying at a near-record pace while Starship works to prove it can do the job Musk has already picked out for it.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-cites-distrust-of-spacex-in-decision-to-drop-cursor-partnership", "canonical_source": "https://www.teslarati.com/openai-cites-distrust-of-spacex-in-decision-to-drop-cursor-partnership/", "published_at": "2026-08-29 04:08:59+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-29 04:17:48.332930+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "Cursor", "SpaceX", "Anysphere", "Elon Musk", "Anthropic", "Sam Altman", "Michael Truell"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-cites-distrust-of-spacex-in-decision-to-drop-cursor-partnership", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-cites-distrust-of-spacex-in-decision-to-drop-cursor-partnership.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-cites-distrust-of-spacex-in-decision-to-drop-cursor-partnership.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-cites-distrust-of-spacex-in-decision-to-drop-cursor-partnership.jsonld"}}