Elon Musk’s xAI sues Apple and OpenAI for illegally thwarting competition in AI

Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s xAI filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI on Monday, claiming the companies are unlawfully stifling competition in the AI industry. The suit alleges that Apple’s partnership with OpenAI gives ChatGPT an unfair advantage, making it the “only generative AI chatbot that benefits from billions of user prompts originating from hundreds of millions of iPhones.”
OpenAI leverages these prompts and feedback to enhance its model, gaining a substantial edge, the lawsuit claims. Additionally, the suit alleges Apple is demoting rival chatbot apps in its App Store rankings.
Rolfe Winkler for The Wall Street Journal:
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“In a desperate bid to protect its smartphone monopoly, Apple has joined forces with the company that most benefits from inhibiting competition and innovation in AI: OpenAI, a monopolist in the market for generative AI chatbots,” the lawsuit says.
“This latest filing is consistent with Mr. Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” an OpenAI spokesman said. Musk has sued OpenAI to try to prevent the startup from converting into a for-profit company, saying it abandoned its mission to give priority to benefits for humanity in developing AI.
The lawsuit calls attention to Apple’s role as a primary delivery mechanism for AI models as they begin to reshape industries and the global economy. Musk’s litigation will allow the billionaire entrepreneur to bring any potential AI partnerships in front of a judge if he believes Apple or other companies act as unfair gatekeepers.
The suit appears to mimic the Justice Department’s successful antitrust case against Google. A federal judge found that Google illegally monopolized the market for conventional search results, in part by locking up distribution through iPhones. xAI argues that OpenAI is doing something similar for AI-driven search.

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MacDailyNews Take: It’s logical that if Google unlawfully monopolized traditional search results, partly by securing distribution through Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and Macs, then OpenAI is similarly monopolizing and stifling competition in AI user prompts via Apple Intelligence-capable devices.
Regarding App Store charts, Apple earlier this month stated, “The App Store is designed to be fair and free of bias. We feature thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations, and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria. Our goal is to offer safe discovery for users and valuable opportunities for developers, collaborating with many to increase app visibility in rapidly evolving categories.”
Note that Apple’s statements very carefully never state that its App Store charts are based solely on the number of downloads each app receives, as most users are likely to assume. – MacDailyNews, August 13, 2025
As for Grok:
If you’re going to with an external AI partner, why not choose the smartest one? We find xAI’s Grok to be more accurate and useful than Google’s Gemini, ChatGPT, and the rest. – MacDailyNews, July 21, 2025
The day Grok is as integrated as Siri in Apple’s operating systems is the day the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, HomePod, Apple TV, Apple Vision immediately go from clueless to genius! – MacDailyNews, June 4, 2025

2015: Google it.2025: Grok it.
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) June 3, 2025

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