Elon Musk took aim at Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit on Monday, claiming that the iPhone maker and the Chatgpt creator are collaborating to hinder competition in artificial intelligence.
The 61-page complaint, filed in federal court in Texas, follows a threat MUSKA made two weeks ago, when he accused Apple of unfairly favoring Openai and Chatgpt in the iPhone App Store rankings to get the top AI apps.
Musk’s report emphasized that Apple has built a system against Chatgpt competitors, such as Grok Chat, built by his own XAI. Now he’s detailing a litany of complaints in a lawsuit — filed by XAI and another of his corporate units, X Corp. — seeking monetary damages and an injunction prohibiting the allegedly illegal tactics.
The double-barreled legal attack combines several recently developed narratives to recast a years-old partnership between Apple and Openai as a thinly veiled conspiracy to stifle competition during a technological shift that could prove as revolutionary as the 2007 launch.
“This is the story of two monopolists joining forces to ensure their continued dominance in a world rapidly driven by the most powerful technology humanity has ever created: artificial intelligence,” the lawsuit claims.
The complaint portrays Apple as a company that sees AI as an “existential threat” to its future success, prompting it to strike a deal with Openai in an attempt to protect the iPhone franchise, which has long been its biggest moneymaker.
Some of the allegations accuse Apple of trying to protect the iPhone from do-it-yourself “super apps,” like the one Musk has long been trying to create with the X, Echo. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple .
The complaint portrays Openai as a threat to humanity, putting profit ahead of public safety as it attempts to build on its phenomenal growth since the release of Chatgpt in late 2022. The portrayal echoes what is already being drawn in another federal lawsuit Musk filed last year , alleging that Openai had betrayed its founding mission to operate as a nonprofit research lab for the public good.
Openai is fighting a lawsuit against Musk that accuses him of harassment — an allegation the company cited in response to Monday’s antitrust lawsuit. “This latest filing is consistent with Mr. Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” Openai said in a statement.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The crux of the lawsuit revolves around Apple’s decision to use ChatGpt as an AI-powered “answer engine” for the iPhone when the technology built into its device couldn’t meet users’ needs. The partnership, announced last year, is part of Apple’s belated entry into the AI race, which was supposed to be powered primarily by its own technology on the inside, but the company has yet to deliver on all of its promises in the area .
Apple’s own AI shortcomings will likely help ChatGpt get more use out of the iPhone, providing Openai with invaluable data that isn’t available to Grok and other potential competitors because it’s currently an exclusive partnership.
The alliance provided Apple with an incentive to improperly promote Chatgpt in the iPhone App Store AI rankings, the lawsuit alleges. Other AI apps from Deekseek and Confusion have periodically reached the top spot in Apple’s App Store AI rankings in at least some parts of the world since Apple announced its deal with Chatgpt.
The lawsuit doesn’t mention the potential threat that Chatgpt could pose to Apple and the future popularity of the iPhone. As part of its expansion efforts, Openai hired former Apple designer Jony Ive to oversee the project, which aims to create an AI-powered device that many analysts believe could eventually challenge the iPhone.
