Musk’s xAI and X Corp. Drop Antitrust Claims Against Apple

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, and social media platform X Corp. have voluntarily dismissed their antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc., ending a challenge that accused the iPhone maker of anticompetitive behavior. The filing, submitted to a federal court in Texas on Monday, comes as Musk continues to pursue separate litigation against OpenAI.

"Plaintiffs have resolved their claims in this Action against Defendant Apple Inc.," attorneys for Musk’s companies wrote in the court filing.

The Scope of the Original Complaint

The lawsuit, originally filed in August, centered on Apple's decision to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT directly into the iOS operating system. Musk’s companies alleged that this arrangement unfairly favored OpenAI over competing chatbot developers, creating a "walled garden" that hindered market competition. The complaint argued that system-level integration gave OpenAI an advantage that other AI startups, including xAI, could not replicate on Apple devices.

Ongoing Litigation Against OpenAI

While the claims against Apple have been dropped, the lawsuit against OpenAI remains active. That complaint alleges OpenAI maintains an unlawful monopoly over the chatbot market through anticompetitive practices. Musk has been a vocal critic of OpenAI, a company he co-founded in 2015, frequently asserting that its transition from a non-profit research lab to a commercial entity compromised its initial commitments to safety and transparency.

Impact on AI Competition

The dismissal comes amid scrutiny over partnerships between hardware makers and large language model providers. By embedding AI models at the operating system level, companies such as Apple and Microsoft aim to differentiate their devices. Regulators and competitors have questioned whether default integrations limit consumer choice and restrict smaller developers from gaining market share.

For xAI, which continues to roll out its Grok chatbot, legal action has been part of Musk's effort to challenge dominant market players. Dropping Apple narrows the litigation to focus entirely on OpenAI.