Elon Musk’s xAI sues Apple and OpenAI over ChatGPT exclusivity on iOS devices, accuses them of ‘thwarting competition and innovation in the generative AI chatbot market’
Not satisfied with getting OpenAI to say that his dad could beat up Sam Altman’s dad, Elon Musk has now filed a lawsuit against Apple and Open AI, accusing them of “joining forces to ensure their continued dominance in a world rapidly driven by the most powerful technology humanity has ever created: artificial intelligence.”
“AI is fundamentally reshaping our world,” the lawsuit (via The Verge) says, and “the consensus among global business leaders, academics, and scientists is that AI adoption is both unavoidable and transformational.”
Companies that miss the boat will find themselves at a major disadvantage: Companies like Apple, for instance, which was so focused “on making iterative changes to its smartphones” that it was “blindsided by major innovations in AI,” and is now at risk of becoming another Nokia—a once-dominant force brought low by a rapidly shifting technological landscape.
Thus Apple has teamed up with OpenAI, which the lawsuit claims has established its own monopoly in the field of generative AI chatbots, leaving Musk’s xAI unable to gain “more than a few percent of the market despite accolades about its superior features.”
“Just like Apple, OpenAI has incentive to protect its monopoly by thwarting competition and innovation in the generative AI chatbot market,” the suit states. “And just like Apple, it has done so in violation of the antitrust laws.”
The complaint centers on Apple’s decision to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into iOS, and subsequent “deprioritizing” of other chatbots and “super apps” in App Store rankings. This not only forces iPhone users to use ChatGPT, the lawsuit claims, it also harms the makers of competing chatbots by impairing their ability to train: “As a result of Apple and OpenAI’s exclusive arrangement, ChatGPT is the only generative AI chatbot that benefits from billions of user prompts originating from hundreds of millions of iPhones. This makes it hard for competitors of ChatGPT’s generative AI chatbot and super apps powered by generative AI chatbots to scale and innovate.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the deal between Apple and OpenAI is harming X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which Musk acquired in 2022 and promptly set on fire.
“The harms to xAI and its generative AI chatbot, Grok, also harm X’s ‘everything app’,” the suit states. “Because Grok’s functionality is a key feature of the X app, the X app is more attractive the better Grok performs. And because Defendants’ conduct makes Grok less able to fairly compete with ChatGPT, X’s app (and thus X) suffers in the process. This results in fewer X app customers and subscriptions, and less revenue and profits, ultimately creating a depressed enterprise value for X relative to the but-for world.”
This isn’t the first time and Musk and Altman have clashed: Musk sued OpenAI and Altman in 2024, claiming that he was “betrayed” by OpenAI’s attempted transition into a for-profit company, although OpenAI later published emails and DMs showing that Musk was eager to go for-profit as far back as 2017, but left the company when his demand for “majority equity, absolute control, and to be CEO of the for-profit” was rejected. In February 2025, Musk made noise about buying OpenAI for $97.4 billion—an unsolicited offer that was rejected outright—and then, earlier this month, the CEOs exchanged harsh words on social media in what proved to be a prelude to this action.
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