Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has filed a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, accusing the tech giants of conspiring to create a monopoly in the burgeoning AI market. The legal action, filed on Monday in a federal court in Texas, alleges that Apple’s integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its operating systems unfairly stifles competition and harms consumers.
The 61-page complaint, filed by xAI and its parent company X, seeks billions of dollars in damages and a court order to dismantle what it describes as an “illegal arrangement.” The lawsuit claims the partnership between Apple and OpenAI “locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing.”
At the heart of the dispute is the deal announced by Apple and OpenAI last year, which saw ChatGPT seamlessly integrated into the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The lawsuit contends that this “exclusive arrangement” has effectively made ChatGPT the sole generative AI chatbot for millions of iPhone users, limiting choice and innovation. Lawyers for Musk’s companies argue that this gives ChatGPT an insurmountable advantage, making it nearly impossible for rival applications, such as xAI’s own Grok, to gain prominence in the App Store.
The legal action marks the latest salvo in a long-running, and often public, feud between Mr. Musk and OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman. Mr. Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, left the company in 2018 and has since been a vocal critic of its shift from a non-profit entity to a more commercially focused business. The lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI is separate from an existing legal battle where Mr. Musk alleges the company betrayed its original mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity.
OpenAI has responded to the new lawsuit, with a spokesperson calling the action “consistent with Mr. Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment.” Apple has not yet issued an official comment on the lawsuit. However, the legal challenge comes at a sensitive time for the iPhone maker, which is already embroiled in a separate antitrust case with the U.S. Justice Department over its App Store practices. The allegations in Mr. Musk’s suit, particularly the claim that Apple uses its market power to hinder the growth of “super apps” like X, echo those made by the government.
The lawsuit also references previous testimony from an unrelated case, where an Apple executive stated that the company’s partnership with OpenAI is not exclusive. The outcome of the case could have significant implications for the future of AI and the fierce competition among tech giants to dominate the next technological frontier. The legal proceedings will now pit Mr. Musk, one of the world’s richest people, against Apple, one of the world’s most valuable companies, in a courtroom showdown that could reshape the industry.
