The legal war between Elon Musk and Apple has escalated to the courtroom. On Monday, Musk filed a lawsuit against the iPhone maker and OpenAI, alleging the two have conspired to maintain and extend monopolies on their respective platforms. The suit comes just weeks after Musk accused Apple of giving preferential treatment to OpenAI’s ChatGPT while its own Grok app has been left off of the App Store’s “Must Have” list.

Filed on behalf of Musk’s companies X (formerly Twitter) and xAI, the lawsuit goes far beyond complaints about App Store rankings. The filing claims Apple and OpenAI have signed an exclusive deal that, in addition to giving ChatGPT unprecedented access to iPhone features, also prevents any competitor from reaching Apple’s massive audience. The lawsuit alleges that the arrangement violates antitrust and unfair competition laws, threatening Musk’s much-vaunted ambitions to build an “everything app” on the X platform, which he acquired in 2022.

The complaint says Apple has pre-installed ChatGPT as the default chatbot across Siri, Apple’s Writing Tools, and other features, granting OpenAI exclusive access to billions of user prompts that can be used to train its AI models. X argues that such data is essential to scale and improve chatbot capabilities, but Apple is using that access to make it impossible for rivals to compete with Grok. X estimates OpenAI already commands at least 80 percent of the chatbot market, and Apple’s new integration will only cement that lead indefinitely.

“Generative AI chatbots would vigorously compete with one another in a fair market,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, defendants’ anticompetitive conduct has handed a substantial portion of the market to ChatGPT.”

Musk’s legal team says Apple is acting out of fear that a successful rival super app could reduce the need for iPhones the way WeChat has in China. The complaint includes an alleged quote from Apple executive Eddy Cue, who reportedly said advances in AI could “destroy Apple’s smartphone business.” Musk’s lawsuit claims the deal is Apple’s attempt to shore up its iPhone monopoly, and OpenAI’s effort to build an insurmountable lead in generative AI.

Apple and OpenAI Open the Chatbot Floodgates

The complaint likens the Apple-OpenAI deal to the tech giant’s previous search arrangement with Google, which U.S. regulators have accused of perpetuating Google’s search engine monopoly. According to Musk, Apple has rebuffed repeated attempts by xAI to similarly integrate Grok, including requests to feature Grok in the App Store when the new “Imagine” feature launched. Beyond that, the filing accuses Apple of manipulating App Store rankings and delaying Grok updates.

At stake, Musk’s team argues, is not just Grok’s ability to compete, but the very future of AI-driven social and messaging apps. The lawsuit notes that Siri already managed 1.5 billion user requests per day worldwide in 2024, which exceeds the total prompts given to all generative AI chatbots in that year. If OpenAI is the sole recipient of that data, it will control a major slice of all potential chatbot interactions, X’s lawsuit alleges.

The filing suggests consumers stand to lose as well. The lawsuit warns Apple customers may find themselves with fewer choices and a less capable chatbot on their phones, all while paying monopoly prices for Apple’s hardware. OpenAI, it notes, could use its position to increase subscription prices. Plans call for OpenAI to double the price of its “plus” subscription over the next four years, the lawsuit says. “That plan would be unfeasible unless OpenAI has power over marketwide prices,” X’s lawsuit further alleges.

The lawsuit also points to the potentially devastating impact on investment. If Apple continues to “press its thumb firmly on the scale” for ChatGPT, investors may see little value in backing potential rivals, leaving them starved of resources. This, X claims, could create a talent flight to Big Tech firms that could scoop up top developers from smaller, underfunded startups.

The Apple-OpenAI deal itself also raises questions, according to Musk’s team. The filing says OpenAI has, in effect, been paying to access Apple, with the company providing ChatGPT to Apple for free and Apple itself making no money from the partnership for at least four years. X’s lawsuit suggests the only reason the two companies could view such an arrangement as worthwhile is if the supposed benefits of blocking rivals are more valuable than direct revenue.

“By making the deal exclusive, Apple sacrificed the profits it would have earned by integrating multiple chatbots,” the complaint argues. “The true motive was Apple and OpenAI’s shared goal of blocking competition.”

The lawsuit may have existential consequences for Musk’s ambitions to build X as an “everything app.” In its filing, Musk’s team says Grok may never have a fair chance to compete if Apple’s exclusivity stands, making X less appealing to users and investors. “Because Grok’s functionality is a key feature of the X app, the X app is more attractive the better Grok performs,” the filing states. “Defendants’ conduct makes Grok less able to compete with ChatGPT, leading to fewer customers, less revenue, and ultimately a depressed enterprise value for X.”

Musk’s companies are seeking billions of dollars in damages and an injunction to prevent Apple from integrating ChatGPT exclusively into its platform. In a statement to Ars Technica, OpenAI dismissed the lawsuit as another example of Musk’s “ongoing pattern of harassment.” Apple declined to comment.

A decision by a court on whether Apple and OpenAI have colluded to entrench monopolies will likely have consequences for not just Grok but the future of AI as well.