Here’s what Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI is really trying to achieve

Elon Musk

Newly surfaced filings indicate that Elon Musk’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI is less about Grok’s App Store ranking and far more about a bigger, older ambition. At the centre of the complaint is Musk’s belief that Apple’s growing partnership with OpenAI makes it harder for X and xAI to evolve into a Western super app, a goal Musk has publicly chased since buying Twitter in 2022.

The public narrative around the lawsuit began when Grok briefly climbed the App Store charts last July. The model upgrades and new tools helped the app jump from sixtieth place to twenty ninth, before a wider free rollout pushed it to fifth. Musk argued that Apple was suppressing Grok’s visibility despite the data showing normal chart behaviour. Apple rejected the accusation, as did Sam Altman. Musk then filed the lawsuit, framing it as a battle against two alleged monopolies working together to protect their dominance in smartphones and AI.

Inside the complaint, xAI accuses Apple of giving OpenAI preferential placement in the App Store and restricting rival chatbots. It claims this behaviour protects Apple’s iPhone business while entrenching ChatGPT as the default AI assistant on iOS, leaving users with no alternative even if they prefer Grok. The filing portrays Apple as having missed the AI wave and now depending on OpenAI to stay competitive.

Judge Mark Pittman has refused to dismiss the case outright, asking instead for more factual evidence. That move triggered a new phase. xAI immediately began seeking documents from KakaoTalk and Alipay, both major Asian super apps. The letters argue that super apps give users enough utility to consider switching smartphone platforms and that Apple’s exclusive arrangement with OpenAI prevents similar products from thriving in the United States.

The document requests are extensive. xAI wants internal papers showing how these apps earn revenue, how they are ranked inside the App Store, how they incorporate AI, and whether Apple’s policies have limited their growth. The company is expected to pursue similar material from WeChat, Grab, Gojek, Rakuten, TataNeu and ZaloPay. The pattern is becoming clearer. xAI is attempting to build a case that super apps could succeed in Western markets if not for Apple’s restrictions, positioning Grok as the core of a future X super app.

The weak point in that argument is that every Asian super app Musk references grew under broadly similar app store rules. Their rise was driven by regional economics, digital payment ecosystems, low card penetration, and cultural behaviour that consolidated daily services into a single platform. Those conditions do not exist in the United States or Europe. Blaming Apple for X’s inability to replicate WeChat ignores that the success factors are mostly external to platform governance.

The filings suggest the lawsuit is less about Grok being overlooked in a curated list and more about Musk attempting to force structural changes to iOS that could advantage X’s stalled super app ambition. In that sense, it resembles the kitchen sink approach seen in the Epic Games case, where a narrow grievance becomes a broader referendum on Apple’s market power. Whether the courts accept that framing remains to be seen.

The antitrust questions are worth scrutiny. Apple’s AI partnerships and default integrations will face legal examination regardless of this lawsuit. But once you examine the filings closely, the suit reads less like an effort to correct App Store unfairness and more like an attempt to retrofit Apple’s platform around a vision X has struggled to execute on its own.