Musk Drops Apple From Antitrust Fight, Keeps Pressure on OpenAI

Elon Musk appears to have ended his legal battle with Apple regarding the integration of ChatGPT into iPhone features, even as he continues his antitrust lawsuit against OpenAI.

When Apple and OpenAI announced their partnership in 2024, Musk was vocal in his criticism, characterizing the arrangement as allowing OpenAI to deploy "creepy spyware" on user devices. He subsequently filed suit, alleging that the partnership created a "monopoly" over how Apple users access AI chatbots, thereby damaging competition in both the smartphone and conversational AI sectors.

Musk's grievances intensified after he believed Grok, his own AI chatbot, was being unfairly prevented from reaching the top of Apple's App Store rankings. In August of last year, he declared that "Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation."

On Monday, Musk filed notice with the court that he had settled his dispute with Apple and would be withdrawing all allegations against the company. The filing provided no details about settlement negotiations or the reasoning behind the voluntary dismissal. Notably, Musk committed to never pursue these claims against Apple again, yet declined to dismiss his case against OpenAI.

Musk's strategy now appears focused on arguing that OpenAI leveraged its arrangement with Apple—which Apple has consistently maintained was not exclusive—to establish dominance in the AI chatbot market.

OpenAI has characterized Musk's litigation as harassment designed to distract from competition with his own AI venture, now branded as SpaceXAI. The company dismissed Musk's claims as unfounded last fall, noting that Musk has not substantiated what share of the chatbot market would actually be affected by the Apple partnership. Instead, Musk offered a range of 0 to 55 percent based on what OpenAI describes as rough calculations that should not persuade the court.

As the case progresses, OpenAI continues to deny antitrust wrongdoing while simultaneously developing additional defensive arguments. In May, the company began publicly stating that it felt "burned" by the Apple arrangement, claiming that Apple failed to adequately promote the ChatGPT features. An unnamed OpenAI executive told Bloomberg that the company had anticipated the deal "could generate billions of dollars per year in subscriptions," but Apple allegedly designed the integration in ways that obscured the chatbot's functionality. OpenAI was reportedly considering legal action at that time as negotiations to revise the agreement stalled.

Musk's animosity toward OpenAI is well-documented. Earlier this year, he lost a separate lawsuit claiming that OpenAI had strayed from its original mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity. The loss proved particularly galling to Musk because a jury unanimously determined that he had filed too late, rather than ruling that his underlying claims lacked merit.

Musk faced potential legal obstacles in the antitrust case as well, since both Apple and OpenAI contended that Musk lacks standing to sue because he does not operate in the smartphone market and none of his companies manufacture phones. Apple had further argued that allowing Musk to prevail would set a dangerous precedent for the technology sector by treating any supplier agreement as an antitrust violation simply because competing proposals were rejected.

As the narrowed case proceeds toward trial this fall, it is conceivable that Musk withdrew from the Apple litigation after obtaining information he sought. This summer, a judge compelled Apple to provide Musk's companies with internal communications in which Apple employees discussed the OpenAI partnership. This discovery may enable Musk to refine his estimates regarding the portion of the chatbot market that OpenAI purportedly aimed to control.