He first attacked the partnership after it was announced in 2024, describing the integration as a way for OpenAI to put “creepy spyware” on Apple devices. Musk later sued, alleging that the deal harmed competition in both smartphones and AI chatbots.
The conflict intensified last August when Musk accused Apple of preventing Grok from reaching the top of the App Store.
“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,” Musk said at the time.
Apple is now out of the case. The voluntary dismissal does not explain why X dropped the company or whether any settlement was reached.
OpenAI remains the sole defendant and continues to reject Musk’s monopoly claims. The company has argued that Musk has not established how much of the chatbot market was actually closed off by Apple’s ChatGPT integration.
Musk’s estimate has ranged from zero to 55 percent. OpenAI has criticized that range as unsupported and based on rough calculations.
Apple, meanwhile, has maintained that its ChatGPT arrangement was not exclusive. It previously argued that accepting Musk’s theory could create broader antitrust problems for technology companies by treating ordinary supplier agreements as unlawful whenever competing offers are rejected.
OpenAI has also pointed to the performance of the Apple partnership itself as evidence against Musk’s case. Earlier this year, the company said it felt “burned” by how Apple implemented ChatGPT and believed the integration failed to generate the visibility it expected.
One OpenAI executive said the company had believed the arrangement “could generate billions of dollars per year in subscriptions,” but that the ChatGPT features were difficult for users to find. Reports said negotiations between the companies later stalled.
That gives OpenAI another line of defense: if the Apple deal was neither exclusive nor especially effective at driving adoption, the company can argue it did not create the level of market control Musk alleges.
The case also raises procedural questions. Apple and OpenAI have previously argued that Musk’s companies lack standing to pursue smartphone-related claims because none of them compete in the smartphone business.
Musk faced a separate legal setback against OpenAI earlier this year, when a jury rejected his case accusing the company of abandoning its original mission. The verdict turned on timing, with jurors concluding that Musk had waited too long to sue.
The remaining antitrust case is now more focused. Rather than pursuing Apple and OpenAI together, Musk is pressing the claim that OpenAI used its iPhone relationship to strengthen its position against competing chatbots.
The dismissal follows a discovery ruling this summer that required Apple to provide Musk’s companies with internal communications about the OpenAI agreement. Those materials could become part of the remaining case as Musk attempts to show how the partnership affected competition in the chatbot market.
This analysis is based on reporting from ars TECHNICA.
Image courtesy of Superpower Daily.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
