Elon Musk sues Apple, OpenAI, saying they are hurting AI competition

The case sets up a high-stakes court showdown between the richest person on the planet and one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Elon Musk accused Apple Inc. and OpenAI in a lawsuit of unfairly favoring the artificial intelligence app across iPhones and thwarting competition for other chatbot makers.

Musk’s X and xAI filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, arguing that Apple’s decision to integrate OpenAI into the iPhone’s operating system harms competition and deprives consumers of choice.

The billionaire founder of xAI Holdings, which now houses the Grok AI team and X social network, said Apple makes it impossible for anyone other than OpenAI to reach the top of the App Store charts, a sought-after global spotlight for app developers.

Apple and OpenAI’s “exclusive arrangement has made ChatGPT the only generative AI chatbot integrated into the iPhone,” lawyers for X said in the lawsuit, and “have locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing.”

The case sets up a high-stakes court showdown between the richest person on the planet and one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Apple and OpenAI did not immediately respond to request for comment.