xAI, the artificial intelligence startup owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, filed a lawsuit against Apple and ChatGPT developer OpenAI in the Texas federal court on Monday, accusing the two companies of illegally conspiring to hinder competition in the field of artificial intelligence.
The complaint alleges that Apple and OpenAI "maintain their monopoly position by monopolizing the market and preventing innovative companies such as X (formerly Twitter) and xAI from competing."
The complaint alleges that Apple conspired with OpenAI to suppress xAI’s products, including their promotion on the Apple App Store. "Absent its exclusive agreement with OpenAI, there is no reason why Apple would not have made the X app and the Grok app more prominently featured in its App Store," xAI said.
Apple and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Musk threatened to sue Cupertino, California-based Apple. He posted on his social platform
Apple has partnered with OpenAI to integrate the latter’s artificial intelligence platform, ChatGPT, into Apple devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
In March this year, Musk’s xAI acquired social platform X for $33 billion to improve its chatbot training capabilities. Additionally, Musk has integrated the Grok chatbot into vehicles produced by his electric car company, Tesla.
Musk's xAI is less than two years old and currently competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Chinese startup DeepSeek.
At the same time, Musk also filed another lawsuit in California federal court against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman (Sam Altman), asking to prevent OpenAI from transforming from a non-profit institution to a for-profit enterprise. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit.
Apple's App Store operating model has been the focus of litigation many times before. In a pending lawsuit filed by Fortnite developer Epic Games, a judge has ruled that Apple needs to allow more competition in its in-app payment methods.