Elon Musk is suing Apple and OpenAI over claims that their deal to build ChatGPT into the iPhone is stifling competition in the AI industry. In a lawsuit filed on Monday, the Musk-owned X Corp. and xAI also accuse Apple’s Apple Store of “deprioritizing” rival chatbots and “super” apps, including Grok and X.
Musk’s companies claim that iPhone users “have no reason” to download third-party AI apps because the company “force[s]” users to use ChatGPT as their default chatbot app when enabling Apple Intelligence. “Apple and OpenAI have locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing,” the companies allege.
Musk threatened Apple with legal action earlier this month after accusing the company of rigging App Store rankings in favor of OpenAI. “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.
The lawsuit adds that though the X and Grok apps have received high rankings, neither appears in the App Store’s “Must-Have Apps” section, where ChatGPT was allegedly the “only” AI chatbot in the section on August 24th, 2025.
X and xAI also accuse Apple’s partnership with OpenAI of creating a “moat” that protects the AI giant due to “Apple’s monopoly in smartphones.” It notes that the iPhone’s ChatGPT integration gives OpenAI access to “potentially billions of user prompts originating from hundreds of millions of iPhones,” allegedly giving it an unfair advantage.
“This latest filing is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood said in an emailed statement to The Verge. Apple told Bloomberg earlier this month that its store is “designed to be fair and free of bias” in response to Musk’s claims.
