Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has sued Apple and ChatGPT maker OpenAI, accusing them of illegally conspiring to thwart competition for artificial intelligence (AI).
The lawsuit filed in a United States federal court in Texas on Monday says that Apple and OpenAI have “locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing”.
The complaint filed by the billionaire said Apple and OpenAI conspired to suppress xAI’s products, including on the Apple 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 in its App Store,” xAI said.
The lawsuit pointed out that in June 2024, Apple and OpenAI announced they would integrate ChatGPT into Apple’s operating system under an exclusive arrangement.
“OpenAI’s exclusive arrangement has made ChatGPT the only generative AI chatbot integrated into the iPhone. This means that if iPhone users want to use a generative AI chatbot for key tasks on their devices, they have no choice but to use ChatGPT, even if they would prefer to use more innovative and imaginative products like xAI’s Grok,” the lawsuit alleged.
Apple holds 65 percent of the smartphone market share.
The Silicon Valley tech giant and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Musk threatened to sue Cupertino, California-based Apple, saying in a post on his social media platform X that Apple’s behaviour “makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store”.
Apple’s partnership with OpenAI has integrated its AI platform ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.
“This is 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,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X on the heels of Musk’s remarks earlier this month.
Musk does have a longstanding history of going after companies that are a bane to his side. The billionaire sued several brands, including Lego and Nestle, that stopped advertising on X amid hostile rhetoric on the platform.
Musk’s xAI acquired X in March for $33bn to enhance its chatbot training capabilities. Musk also has integrated the Grok chatbot into vehicles made by his electric automobile company, Tesla.
Musk’s xAI was launched less than two years ago and competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI as well as with Chinese startup DeepSeek.
Musk is separately suing OpenAI and its CEO Altman in federal court in California to stop its conversion from a nonprofit to a for-profit business. Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit.
Apple’s App Store practices have been the focus of multiple lawsuits. In one ongoing case by Fortnite video game maker Epic Games, a judge ordered Apple to allow greater competition for app payment options.
On Wall Street, Apple’s stock is not responding to the lawsuit, and is still up 0.6 percent for the day. OpenAI, however, is not publicly traded, nor is xAI. However, Musk’s other venture, Tesla, is up 1.2 percent as of 12pm in New York (16:00 GMT).
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