On Monday, Musk continued his attacks on Apple and OpenAI with a new lawsuit that claims the two companies have colluded to solidify monopolies in the rapidly growing AI chatbot market. The lawsuit is an escalation of a public feud that just weeks ago saw Musk rail against Apple in a post for the first time, claiming the company has favored ChatGPT in the App Store rankings, while his own Grok app has been notably absent from its “Must Have” section.

The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of Musk’s X and xAI companies, goes beyond App Store rankings. It accuses Apple and OpenAI of striking an exclusive agreement that not only gives ChatGPT preferential access to iPhone features but also bars competing chatbots from reaching Apple’s audience of 1.8 billion. Musk said the arrangement breaks antitrust and unfair competition laws, and endangers his long-held ambition to build an “everything app” atop Twitter.

In the lawsuit, X said Apple had integrated ChatGPT into iOS as a default chatbot for Siri, Apple’s Writing Tools, and other services, in a way that only sends user prompts to OpenAI. That data, X argued, is “critical to training and improving the Model” of a chatbot, and without access to that billions of users, it becomes difficult for rivals to scale. As a result, X said OpenAI already controls at least 80 percent of the market, and Apple’s integration gives it an unfair long-term advantage.

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

The lawsuit claims Apple is worried a successful rival super app might make iPhones less important, a bit like how WeChat in China has become a standalone replacement for many standalone apps on mobile phones. The filing points to Apple executive Eddy Cue as saying in a recent interview that recent advances in AI are “going to destroy Apple’s smartphone business.” Musk’s lawsuit framed the deal as a panic response from Apple to prop up its iPhone monopoly, while helping OpenAI grab a potentially insurmountable lead in generative AI.

Exclusive Access and Market Power

In the complaint, Musk likened the deal to Apple’s long-standing exclusive arrangement with Google for search on iOS. U.S. regulators have, in a recent lawsuit, contended this agreement cemented Google’s dominance of search and prevented users from choosing a rival, like Microsoft’s Bing.

Musk claims Apple spurned attempts by xAI to sign a similar integration deal for Grok, and even refused to feature it in the App Store when requested, including when launching a new “Imagine” feature that could have paired well with Grok. The filing alleges Apple also manipulated App Store rankings and delayed Grok updates to limit competition.

Musk’s lawsuit describes the iOS deal as a threat to the future of all AI platforms. He points out that Siri already handled 1.5 billion user requests each day across the globe in 2024, more than the total number of prompts that year for all generative AI chatbots. If Apple is only funneling those requests to OpenAI, that would give the company up to 55 percent of all potential chatbot traffic, according to the filing.

The implications for consumers are substantial, the filing warned, including fewer options and potentially less capable chatbots, while monopoly prices for iPhones and AI subscription services will remain high. The filing also said OpenAI’s plans to double its “plus” subscription revenue over the next four years would be “unfeasible unless OpenAI has power over marketwide prices.”

Musk also claimed the deal was threatening to investment in rival chatbots, arguing investors are more likely to back projects that can reach Apple’s billions of users. If the company keeps “pressing its thumb firmly on the scale” in favor of ChatGPT, X said, then “investors will see less value in investing” in the company. “The reduced funding, in turn, makes it less likely that X can attract and retain talent, with Big Tech firms poaching engineers and scientists from underfunded startups.”

X said the deal does not make financial sense for Apple or OpenAI. It argued OpenAI gave Apple ChatGPT access for free, and paid for the integration and deal-making time by its own researchers and executives, and Apple does not expect to profit from the arrangement for years, if ever. The filing suggests Apple and OpenAI know the market value of their exclusivity and are willing to forgo short-term profits in exchange.

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

For Musk, the risk is his own vision of a multi-functional super app that unifies Twitter and other features. The lawsuit states Grok “may never be able to fairly compete” if Apple and OpenAI are not blocked. That in turn could keep users and investors away. “Because Grok’s functionality is a key feature of the X app, the X app is more attractive the better Grok performs,” the filing said. “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 in damages as well as a permanent injunction against Apple’s exclusive arrangement with OpenAI. In a statement to Ars Technica, OpenAI called the lawsuit another chapter in Musk’s “ongoing pattern of harassment” against its company, while Apple did not comment.

A court’s ruling on whether Apple and OpenAI broke antitrust laws and colluded to monopolize markets will decide not only the future of Grok but potentially the competitive landscape for the next era of AI.