Elon Musk’s AI startup is dragging Apple and OpenAI into court, accusing them of striking an illegal pact that hands ChatGPT a monopoly inside the iPhone.
The lawsuit, filed in Texas federal court by X Corp. and xAI, claims Apple’s exclusive deal to integrate ChatGPT into iOS shuts out every other generative artificial intelligence (AI) competitor, including Musk’s own Grok.
“Apple would integrate ChatGPT into iOS. This deal is exclusive. Apple has not integrated with any other generative AI chatbots, including xAI’s Grok.”
At the center of the case is Apple’s alleged decision to make ChatGPT the default, and only, chatbot baked into iPhone features like Siri, the camera, and writing tools.
“If an iPhone user wants to ask Siri a question and receive a response that taps into generative AI chatbot capabilities, the user can do so only through ChatGPT. There is nothing the iPhone user can do—no app the user can download, no setting the user can change—that allows the user to receive information from Siri provided by any other generative AI chatbot.”
The lawsuit goes further, alleging that the arrangement locks up “billions of potential prompts,” cementing ChatGPT’s advantage while depriving rivals of scale.
“Apple’s integration with ChatGPT amounts to an endorsement and award of default status.”
xAI and X also accuse Apple of manipulating the App Store to bury Grok and the X app despite strong category rankings, while elevating ChatGPT and other lower-ranked apps into its “Must-Have” lists. They say update approvals are delayed and new features are rejected to protect Apple’s favored partner.
The complaint seeks a permanent injunction to break the deal, alongside damages that could run into the billions.