Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, claiming the tech giants are conspiring to suppress competition on the App Store, according to Reuters. The complaint alleges that Apple and OpenAI have “locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing.”
xAI claims that Apple’s exclusive partnership with OpenAI, which integrates ChatGPT into Apple products, has allowed the companies to prevent xAI’s apps—including X and Grok—from gaining prominence in the App Store. “If not for its exclusive deal with OpenAI, Apple would have no reason to refrain from more prominently featuring the X app and the Grok app,” xAI told Reuters.
However, the impact of Apple’s partnership with OpenAI on competition is unclear. Other AI apps, like DeepSeek and Perplexity, have reached the top of App Store charts since the deal began, according to CNBC.
This legal action follows Musk’s earlier threats to sue Apple and OpenAI over similar claims. While Apple has not commented on the lawsuit, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed Musk’s allegations, calling them “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.” Altman appears to be referring to studies showing that Musk has altered X’s algorithm to favor his own posts and content from conservative commentators. Musk has also threatened to overhaul X’s Community Notes feature, a crowdsourced fact-checking system.
OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood told The Verge that the lawsuit “is consistent with Mr. Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment.” The case has been filed in the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, a court known for its conservative leanings—a strategy Musk has used in the past, often referred to as “judge shopping.”
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