Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, claiming the companies “locked up markets to maintain their monopolies” to stifle competition and prevent other AI companies from reaching the top of the App Store, making good on the threats to sue over what the billionaire previously insisted was an “unequivocal antitrust violation.”
Key Takeaways
- The suit filed by X and xAi claims the Musk-led companies are developing “super apps” that allow users to do everything from “social connectivity and messaging, financial services, e-commerce, and entertainment” not connected to a particular device—and these pose an “existential threat” to Apple’s smartphone business.
- The suit also claims that Apple and OpenAI are “manipulating the App Store rankings to cause the X and Grok apps to perform worse, and delaying reviews of updates to the Grok app.”
- Although X is ranked No. 1 in free apps in the “news” category and Grok is ranked No. 2 in the “productivity” category, neither app is featured on the App Store’s “Must-Have Apps” or “Top Free Apps” sections, which users see immediately when opening the store.
- xAI filed the lawsuit with X Corp, the company that owns the social media site.
Crucial Quote
“This latest filing is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” Kayla Wood, a representative for OpenAI, told Forbes in a statement, while Apple did not immediately return a request for comment.
Key Background
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Texas, comes shortly after Musk publicly threatened a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company is “behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store.” Users quickly noted that other AI apps have reached the No. 1 slot in the App Store, including the app developed by Chinese company DeepSeek in January. Apple and OpenAI previously announced a partnership in June 2024 that allowed the smartphone maker to integrate ChatGPT into its iOS operating system—a deal Musk denounced.
Big Number
Due to this deal, “ChatGPT is the only generative AI chatbot that benefits from billions of user prompts originating from hundreds of millions of iPhones,” the lawsuit states. This makes it harder for competitors to “scale and innovate,” the AI company claimed.
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This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
