Musk Escalates Tech Feud, Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged AI Monopoly

Elon Musk has officially declared legal war on Apple and OpenAI, filing a sweeping antitrust lawsuit that accuses the two tech giants of conspiring to "lock up" the artificial intelligence market and stifle competition.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in a Texas federal court on behalf of Musk's companies xAI and X Corp., alleges that a landmark partnership between Apple and OpenAI amounts to an illegal scheme to protect their respective monopolies in smartphones and generative AI. The complaint seeks billions of dollars in damages and a court order to dismantle the partnership.


At the heart of the suit is Apple's integration of OpenAI's ChatGPT into its operating systems, a move that deeply embeds the popular chatbot into iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Musk's legal team argues this "exclusive arrangement" gives ChatGPT an insurmountable advantage, making it the default AI for hundreds of millions of users and starving competitors—like Musk's own Grok chatbot—of the data and user access needed to scale.


"This is a tale of two monopolists joining forces to ensure their continued dominance," the 61-page complaint states, painting a picture of an embattled Apple, fearful of AI's potential to disrupt its iPhone empire, colluding with a dominant OpenAI to maintain control.

The lawsuit specifically claims that the partnership harms competitors in two key ways:

Unfair Market Advantage: By making ChatGPT the only AI deeply integrated into iOS, Apple denies rivals a level playing field. The suit alleges that user prompts flowing through Apple devices create a massive, exclusive data pipeline that continually improves ChatGPT, creating a "feedback loop" that entrenches its market dominance.


App Store Manipulation: The suit revives Musk's recent and very public accusations that Apple is manipulating its App Store rankings to favor OpenAI. The complaint alleges that Apple has deprioritized competing AI apps, including Grok, and delayed their updates, making it "impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1."


This legal challenge follows weeks of escalating rhetoric from Musk, who first threatened the lawsuit in a series of posts on his social media platform, X.

OpenAI was swift to dismiss the lawsuit, framing it as another chapter in Musk's long-running and personal feud with the company he co-founded and its CEO, Sam Altman. "This latest filing is consistent with Mr. Musk's ongoing pattern of harassment," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement.

Apple has yet to officially comment on the lawsuit but has previously stated that its App Store is "fair and free of bias."

Critics of the lawsuit point out that several other AI apps, including Perplexity and DeepSeek, have indeed reached the #1 spot on the App Store since the Apple-OpenAI partnership was announced, potentially undermining Musk's claims of a rigged system.

Nevertheless, the lawsuit lands at a time of intense regulatory scrutiny for Apple's App Store practices. It echoes arguments made in other major antitrust cases, including the one brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, which also accuses Apple of using its monopoly power to block innovative new "super apps."

This high-stakes legal battle is more than just a corporate dispute; it's a clash of titans that could redefine the competitive landscape of artificial intelligence. It pits one of the world's wealthiest and most litigious figures against two of its most powerful companies, with the future of the AI revolution hanging in the balance.