By: Rejoice Henrietta Otoo Arthur.
Elon Musk has taken Apple and OpenAI to court, claiming the two companies are working together to block competition in artificial intelligence (AI). The lawsuit, filed in Texas on Monday, says Apple and OpenAI made a deal that unfairly pushes Musk’s AI company, xAI, and its chatbot Grok, out of the market.
According to the case, Apple’s exclusive deal with OpenAI gives ChatGPT a special place on iPhones, iPads and Macs. This means users only get easy access to ChatGPT and not to other AI chatbots. Musk argues that Apple is using its huge smartphone market share, around 65 percent, to keep xAI from competing fairly.
The legal action comes after Apple announced in 2024 that it would fully integrate ChatGPT into its devices. Musk says this move makes it almost impossible for xAI to rise in Apple’s App Store, even if users prefer different tools like Grok. Earlier this month, he had already warned he might sue Apple over what he called unfair practices.
So far, Apple and OpenAI have not commented on the lawsuit. But OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman recently criticized Musk, saying the billionaire often manipulates his own platform X to benefit himself while attacking rivals.
Despite the lawsuit, Apple’s stock price rose by 0.6 percent on Monday. Tesla, another of Musk’s companies, also saw its shares climb by 1.2 percent. OpenAI is not publicly traded, and xAI is still a young startup competing against industry giants like Microsoft-backed OpenAI and China’s DeepSeek.
