Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of unfairly favoring ChatGPT on iPhones and limiting competition from other AI chatbot developers. The lawsuit, brought by Musk’s companies X and xAI in a Texas federal court, claims Apple’s integration of OpenAI into its iOS ecosystem restricts user choice and gives ChatGPT an unfair advantage by making it the only AI chatbot built directly into iPhones.
Musk argues that this partnership blocks rivals like his own Grok AI, part of xAI, from competing on equal footing—particularly when it comes to visibility on the App Store. ChatGPT currently holds the title of the most-downloaded free iPhone app in the U.S.
This legal action intensifies the feud between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who co-founded the company with Musk before a public split.
Apple and OpenAI have yet to comment. Apple, already under global regulatory scrutiny over App Store practices, is also in a prolonged legal battle with Epic Games. In response to a recent X post from Musk, Apple denied bias, while Altman accused Musk of manipulating X for personal gain.
