Elon Musk Drops Apple from Antitrust Lawsuit but Continues Legal Battle Against OpenAI
8 Sources
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Musk drops Apple from antitrust suit but keeps gunning for OpenAI
Elon Musk is seemingly done attacking Apple over its decision to integrate ChatGPT into iPhone features. Back in 2024, when the partnership was first announced, Musk slammed the integration as an agreement from Apple to let OpenAI install "creepy spyware" on users' devices. The next year, he sued,
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Elon Musk's SpaceXAI Decides It's No Longer Worried About Apple's iPhone Monopoly
After agreeing to somewhat of a truce with his AI rivals this weekend over the need to rein in the pace of AI development, Elon Musk now seems to be offering Apple an olive branch too. SpaceXAI, the AI division of Musk's SpaceX, filed paperwork Monday to drop its antitrust claims against Apple
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xAI dismisses its Apple claims, with no terms disclosed and the OpenAI case still live
The conduct alleged, a phone maker favouring one chatbot inside its own operating system, sits inside a category the Digital Markets Act covers and has never once used xAI and X Corp asked a Texas judge to dismiss their antitrust claims against Apple over the integration of ChatGPT into the
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X and SpaceXAI move to drop Apple from antitrust lawsuit
X and SpaceXAI today filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss their claims against Apple in the antitrust lawsuit they brought against the company and OpenAI. Here are the details. Claims against Apple dropped, pending court approval Last year, Elon Musk accused Apple and OpenAI of colluding to keep
[5]
Musk Drops Apple Lawsuit Over ChatGPT Siri Deal, Keeps Suing OpenAI
Elon Musk's companies X Corp and SpaceXAI today asked the court to dismiss their claims in a lawsuit filed against Apple in 2025, reports Reuters. There was no explanation for the dismissal request or mention of a settlement. The filing also does not ask for the dismissal of claims against
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Musk's X Corp and SpaceXAI resolve antitrust lawsuit against Apple
In a court filing, X and SpaceXAI, a division of SpaceX, moved to dismiss the claims in a lawsuit they brought against Apple and OpenAI last year. The filing did not explain the reasons for dismissal or say whether a settlement had been reached. Elon Musk's X Corp and SpaceXAI said on Monday
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Musk Firms Drop Apple Antitrust Suit but Continue Case Against OpenAI | PYMNTS.com
Those companies had accused Apple of favoring OpenAI's ChatGPT over other chatbot makers, but have now asked a federal judge for permission to voluntarily dismiss the case, Bloomberg News reported Monday (Sept. 14), citing a court filing. Still, the claims the companies made against OpenAI as part
[8]
Musk's xAI and X Corp. settle antitrust case against Apple By Investing.com
Investing.com -- Elon Musk's xAI and X Corp. reached a settlement with Apple Inc. in an antitrust lawsuit and filed to dismiss the case on Monday, according to a report from Bloomberg. The two companies asked a federal judge in Texas to approve the voluntary dismissal. The lawsuit, originally
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Elon Musk's X Corp and SpaceXAI have voluntarily dismissed their antitrust claims against Apple while maintaining their lawsuit against OpenAI. The original suit accused both companies of monopolistic practices through ChatGPT integration into iOS, but no settlement terms were disclosed for the Apple dismissal.
Elon Musk Drops Claims Against Apple in Antitrust Lawsuit
Elon Musk's companies X Corp and SpaceXAI filed a motion in Texas federal court on Monday to voluntarily dismiss with prejudice their claims against Apple in an antitrust lawsuit originally targeting both Apple and OpenAI
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. The filing states that "Plaintiffs have resolved their claims in this Action against Defendant Apple Inc.," though it provides no explanation about settlement terms or what prompted the sudden reversal4
. Apple did not oppose the motion, and the dismissal with prejudice means Musk's companies cannot bring the same claims against Apple again in the future2
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Source: 9to5Mac
Original Allegations of Monopolistic Practices Through ChatGPT Integration
The lawsuit against OpenAI, filed in August 2025, accused Apple and OpenAI of conspiring to suppress competing AI companies through their partnership integrating ChatGPT into iPhone features, including Siri and Apple Intelligence
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. Musk's companies claimed the partnership gave the firms a monopoly on Apple users' AI prompts, allegedly harming competition in both smartphone and chatbot markets1
. The lawsuit argued that ChatGPT became "the only generative AI chatbot that benefits from billions of user prompts originating from hundreds of millions of iPhones," creating an unfair advantage over rivals like Musk's Grok chatbot2
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Source: Ars Technica
Grok Chatbot and App Store Rankings Dispute
The fight with Apple seemingly escalated after Musk believed his Grok chatbot was being illegally blocked from topping the App Store rankings. Last August, he claimed that "Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation"
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. The lawsuit complained that Grok did not have the same level of iOS integration as ChatGPT through Siri, and accused Apple of deprioritizing apps of competing generative AI chatbots in the App Store5
.OpenAI Remains Target as Legal Proceedings Continue
Notably, Musk's companies did not move to dismiss claims against OpenAI and are continuing to pursue that portion of the lawsuit against OpenAI
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. Musk now plans to advance claims that OpenAI relied on the Apple deal to monopolize the chatbot market1
. OpenAI has slammed the lawsuit as another attempt to harass the AI company as Musk's rival firm, now called SpaceXAI, races to catch up. Last fall, OpenAI mocked Musk's claims as baseless, emphasizing that Musk won't even "hazard a guess" at what portion of the chatbot market is being foreclosed, instead claiming it could be anywhere from 0 to 55 percent based on "back-of-the-envelope math"1
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Source: MacRumors
Strategic Timing and Market Foreclosure Evidence
The timing of the Apple dismissal may be strategic. This summer, a court ordered Apple to hand over a range of internal messages where its employees discussed the OpenAI deal
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. That evidence may help Musk refine his calculations on market foreclosure as the narrowed litigation heads to trial this fall. Both Apple and OpenAI had previously argued that Musk does not compete in the smartphone industry and cannot pursue the claims, as none of his companies make smartphones1
. Apple had argued that a Musk win would devastate the tech industry by setting an alarming precedent that any deal with a supplier violates antitrust law if proposals from rival firms are rejected1
.Related Stories
Musk's History with OpenAI and Sam Altman
Musk's ire for OpenAI is well-known. Earlier this year, Musk lost a lawsuit accusing OpenAI and Sam Altman of abandoning the company's nonprofit mission to create AI that benefits humanity. A jury unanimously ruled he waited too long to sue, not that his claims were invalid
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. The current case serves as something of a spiritual successor to that litigation4
.Digital Markets Act and AI Market Competition
The conduct alleged in the lawsuit sits within a category the Digital Markets Act covers but has never used. The European regulation lists virtual assistants among ten services it can regulate, alongside operating systems, browsers, and the App Store
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. However, no virtual assistant like Siri has ever been designated under the act. The European Commission published its first review of the Digital Markets Act on April 28, finding the law "well-suited" to the rise of AI but seeing no need to amend it or add generative AI as a new category3
. The Commission said it will further assess whether some AI services need to be designated as virtual assistants3
.OpenAI's Complications with Apple Partnership
Interestingly, OpenAI has its own grievances about the Apple partnership. In May, OpenAI started publicly saying it felt "burned" by the Apple integration, which OpenAI believed Apple didn't really promote. One executive anonymously told Bloomberg that OpenAI expected the deal "could generate billions of dollars per year in subscriptions," but instead Apple allegedly designed the features integrating ChatGPT in ways that made the chatbot functionality hard to discover
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. At that time, OpenAI was reportedly mulling legal action as efforts to renegotiate the deal stalled. Additionally, Apple sued OpenAI in July for trade secret theft, accusing the company and its hardware chief of a coordinated effort to take information about unreleased products3
. Apple has since moved to partner with Google, paying around $1 billion a year for Gemini to run Siri3
.References
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