OpenAI terminates partnership with Cursor over concerns about elon musk's influence

OpenAI has terminated its partnership with Cursor, a leading AI coding tool provider, citing concerns over Elon Musk's influence following SpaceX's $60 billion acquisition of Cursor. The decision, announced in a late-night blog post last Friday, marks the end of a lucrative collaboration that generated over $1 billion in annualized revenue for OpenAI by the spring of 2026. OpenAI stated it could not trust SpaceX to use its technology in accordance with its terms of service, referencing past violations by Musk's companies. Cursor's founder, Michael Truell, responded by claiming OpenAI's models served only 5% of Cursor's user traffic, though OpenAI's head of core products, Thibault Sottiaux, dismissed the metric as irrelevant to revenue. The move comes as OpenAI prepares for its public offering next year, aiming to present a more stable business model. While losing Cursor may not significantly impact its finances, the decision risks alienating developers who rely on OpenAI's models. OpenAI had previously invested in Cursor during its 2023 seed round and had even featured Truell in its marketing for GPT-5. Anthropic, another AI firm, has pledged to continue offering its models through Cursor, though its own relationship with Musk's SpaceX remains complex.