Apple has found itself at the center of one of the tech industry’s most explosive rivalries, named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s xAI against OpenAI. The suit alleges that Apple’s partnership with OpenAI is an anticompetitive conspiracy, turning a strategic business decision into a major legal liability for the iPhone maker.
The core of the issue is Apple’s integration of ChatGPT into its products, a move central to its strategy to catch up in the AI race. Musk’s lawsuit argues this deal misuses Apple’s market dominance to unfairly promote OpenAI, thereby creating a monopoly and harming competitors like his Grok chatbot. The legal action seeks to dismantle this key alliance.
While the primary feud is between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Apple is now a critical player. The company has remained silent on the lawsuit so far, but it will be forced to defend a partnership that is vital to its future product roadmap. The case threatens to disrupt Apple’s AI ambitions and could set a precedent for how platform owners can partner with service providers.
This places Apple in an awkward position. On one hand, it needs best-in-class AI to stay competitive. On the other, by choosing a dominant partner like OpenAI, it has opened itself up to accusations of anticompetitive gatekeeping. The lawsuit is a direct consequence of the bitter, litigious history between Musk and his former OpenAI colleagues.