Lawsuit: Elon Musk says Apple‑OpenAI partnership creates 'exclusive' AI monopoly
Elon Musk's social media platform, X, and artificial intelligence company, xAI, have filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, alleging the two are colluding to trample competition in the lucrative AI space.
The lawsuit (via Reuters) filed in the US District Court of Texas accuses the two companies of being "monopolists" colluding to "ensure their continued dominance in a world rapidly driven by the most powerful technology humanity has ever created: artificial intelligence ("AI")."
It also accuses OpenAI and Apple of locking up markets, "to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing."
Earlier this month, Musk put out a post on X saying Apple's policies in AI were making it "impossible" for any AI company to hold the top spot on Apple's App Store charts, calling it "an unequivocal antitrust violation."
Musk's claims were challenged by the community notes feature on X, with readers pointing out that competitors like DeepSeek and Perplexity had managed to reach number one on the App Store in January and July, respectively.
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, responded to the post by saying Musk was making a "remarkable claim" and posted a link to a two-year-old article that alleged Musk created a special system for showing users his tweets.
The lawsuit goes on to say that Apple, "in a desperate bid to protect its smartphone monopoly," has joined forces with OpenAI, calling them "a monopolist in the market for generative chatbots."
It is the latest in the series of public jabs that Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been throwing at each other since Musk sued OpenAI last year to prevent its transition into a for-profit company.
OpenAI and Apple's partnership was announced in June last year, which saw the Cupertino tech giant incorporate ChatGPT across Apple platforms.
The lawsuit frames the partnership between the two companies as an "exclusive arrangement" that denies users the choice to "pick their AI assistant," making ChatGPT "the only generative AI chatbot that benefits from billions of user prompts originating from hundreds of millions of iPhones."
Source(s)
Reuters | X | Apple Newsroom
