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Elon Musk’s xAI has sued Apple and OpenAI alleging a deal between them breaks antitrust rules by thwarting competition in artificial intelligence and opening a new front in the technology billionaire’s feud with the two companies.
Apple struck a major deal with OpenAI last year to integrate ChatGPT into its Siri voice assistant, as well as its writing and camera features, as the tech giant made a big push into AI features on its smart devices.
“As a result of the Apple-OpenAI deal, ChatGPT is not just the default — it is the only generative AI chatbot with a first-party integration into Apple’s smartphones,” xAI said in a lawsuit filed in US federal court on Monday. OpenAI, it says, has been given “exclusive access to billions of potential prompts”.
The “unlawful agreement” denies rival chatbots the same reach and access to users, the lawsuit alleges. It claims that Apple has failed to innovate in the AI sector, noting the faltering rollout of its Apple Intelligence system.
The lawsuit also claims that Apple has manipulated App Store rankings and delayed app updates to disadvantage xAI-developed Grok.
Apple has previously stated that it plans to integrate its software with other AI chatbots, but no further partnerships have been announced since it rolled out ChatGPT integration in December. It has held discussions with Google to integrate Gemini.
An OpenAI spokesperson said: “This latest filing is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment.” The lawsuit also accuses OpenAI of holding a monopoly in the AI chatbot market.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When Musk announced earlier this month he would sue the company, the tech giant said its App Store was “designed to be fair and free of bias”.
Monday’s suit accuses Apple of seeking to protect a smartphone monopoly by inhibiting the development of AI-powered “super apps”, which pose a threat to the traditional suite of apps from which Apple generates revenue.
xAI’s suit consciously echoes allegations in a lawsuit that the US justice department filed against Apple last year alleging that the iPhone maker had quashed the development of such apps because they threatened its high-margin services business.
When the Apple-OpenAI deal was announced in June 2024, Musk claimed the tie-up amounted to an “unacceptable security violation” that would give OpenAI access to iPhone user data. He said he would ban the devices at his companies.
Musk’s attack on Apple marks a continuation of hostilities that have bubbled up between the billionaire and the iPhone maker. In November 2022, at the time he bought Twitter, Musk accused Apple of threatening to remove the app from its App Store. He also slammed Apple’s 30 per cent commission on digital purchases via the store.
The feud was quickly quashed when Musk met Tim Cook to resolve the “misunderstanding”. In November 2023 hostilities broke out again when Apple was one of several advertisers that withdrew its ads from X, but Apple has since resumed advertising on the platform.
The suit also marks Musk’s latest salvo against OpenAI, a company he helped launch in 2015, before leaving the board in 2018 after a clash with chief executive Sam Altman. Musk is also suing the ChatGPT parent in California, alleging that its pursuit of profits constitutes a breach of contract.
The billionaire launched a bid to buy OpenAI’s core assets earlier this year, which was rebuffed. Musk tried to draw Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg into that bid, a court filing last week revealed.
Earlier this month Musk branded Altman a “liar” for suggesting Musk manipulated X to promote his own posts. Altman’s post had “far more [views] than I’ve received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!,” Musk pointed out in response.
Monday’s suit alleges that OpenAI and Apple “have also used X’s platform to spread disinformation about their anti-competitive scheme”.
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