Elon Musk just launched a legal missile at Apple and OpenAI, dragging both into federal court on Monday for allegedly teaming up to crush their AI rivals.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas by Elon’s artificial intelligence startup xAI, which now owns the social media platform X after a full stock swap earlier this year.
Elon claims Apple and OpenAI are using their reach and dominance to “collude” and kill any shot other companies have at competing in both smartphones and generative AI.
Elon’s team accuses Apple of intentionally favoring OpenAI by building ChatGPT directly into iPhones, iPads, and Macs, while burying other AI tools like xAI’s Grok in the App Store rankings.
The lawsuit claims the partnership was designed to lock out competing super apps and AI chatbots from visibility and access, giving OpenAI and Apple a shared advantage they refuse to give others.
Elon says Apple rigged the App Store to shut out Grok
Elon argues this is Apple fighting to protect its grip on smartphones by making OpenAI the only AI tool most users ever see. “In a desperate bid to protect its smartphone monopoly,” the complaint says, “Apple has joined forces with the company that most benefits from inhibiting competition and innovation in AI: OpenAI.”
The filing calls OpenAI a monopolist in the AI chatbot market and says Apple’s platform is being used as a weapon to keep it that way. Elon also says Apple’s entire App Store ecosystem is designed to push Grok aside.
While Grok is xAI’s flagship AI chatbot, it barely appears in App Store rankings compared to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which was deeply integrated into Apple’s product lineup last year. The complaint says that Apple’s integration of ChatGPT was a business move to keep OpenAI ahead and competitors invisible.
Earlier this month, Elon went public on X, calling Apple’s actions “an unequivocal antitrust violation.” He added that “Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store.” Just days later, this lawsuit landed, dragging both companies into court under claims of anticompetitive behavior.
OpenAI and Apple push back, Altman calls Musk manipulative
OpenAI isn’t letting Elon’s claims go unanswered. Spokesperson Lindsey Held fired back with a statement calling the lawsuit “consistent with Mr. Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who co-founded the company with Elon in 2015, also responded directly, saying, “This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”
The history between Elon and Sam is messy. Elon left OpenAI in 2018 after clashing over its direction. Since then, OpenAI transformed from a nonprofit into a giant commercial venture that pulled in billions from Microsoft. Elon didn’t like that.
Last year, he sued Sam and OpenAI, accusing them of breaking their original agreement to build AI “for the benefit of humanity broadly.” He claimed their new business-first focus violated that deal.
OpenAI hit back hard. They filed a counterclaim accusing Elon and xAI of “harassment,” including social media attacks and a bogus $97.4 billion offer to buy the company.
OpenAI says the offer was only meant to shake up their business partners, damage their reputation, and disrupt key relationships.
Apple, meanwhile, insists it hasn’t picked sides. A spokesperson said, “Our App Store is designed to be fair and free of bias,” adding that Apple uses multiple signals to rank thousands of apps. But Elon’s lawsuit says that’s not how it works in practice.
And even when some X users tried to push back with Community Notes, pointing out that rival apps like Perplexity and DeepSeek topped App Store rankings briefly, xAI’s legal team argues that doesn’t undo a pattern of long-term bias.
The legal fight also drags in xAI’s recent merger with X, which Elon folded into the AI company back in March. The two companies are now under one umbrella, and Grok is being pushed through the X platform as Elon’s answer to ChatGPT.
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