Two companies backed by Elon Musk have formally sued Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of illegally colluding to block competition from potential rivals.
The lawsuit, filed in the US by X and xAI, targets Apple's decision to integrate OpenAI's chatbot into iPhone operating systems, an exclusive agreement that - according to them - violates competition law.
This move comes after public threats Musk made earlier this month, when he accused Apple of favoring OpenAI in its App Store rankings.
Apple has not yet commented, while OpenAI calls the lawsuit part of "ongoing harassing behavior by Musk."
Musk and Sam Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but later parted ways, becoming outright rivals. Musk has accused Altman of steering OpenAI away from its original mission of public good, while Musk himself has founded rival companies like xAI and the chatbot Grok.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal court in Texas, Musk's companies claim that the Apple–OpenAI agreement has no valid business reason to be exclusive, arguing that this collaboration:
It has limited competition among generational chatbots,
prevented rivals from reaching the necessary level of usage, and
reduced quality and innovation.
The lawsuit also points out that the deal gave ChatGPT an advantage in the App Store, increasing downloads compared to rivals.
According to her, OpenAI controls about 80% of the generative chatbot market in the US, while Apple owns about 65% of the smartphone market.
Apple and its App Store practices have often been the subject of legal battles, including a high-profile antitrust lawsuit against Google. However, the company has consistently defended its policies, saying they are “fair and impartial.”
Despite the deal with OpenAI, rivals like DeepSeek and Perplexity have managed to occasionally top the App Store app charts since 2024.
Meanwhile, Apple is also reportedly in talks with Google to use the Gemini chatbot as part of improvements to its Siri voice assistant.
