Elon Musk's X Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged Monopoly on iPhone

Elon Musk's X Corp. and xAI have filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, accusing the two companies of creating an illegal monopoly through the exclusive integration of ChatGPT into the iPhone. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges an "anticompetitive scheme" and seeks to recover billions of dollars in damages, along with a permanent injunction to halt the arrangement.

At the heart of the complaint is Apple's deal to make ChatGPT the only generative AI chatbot integrated into iOS. The filing argues this setup forecloses competition from rivals like xAI's Grok by giving ChatGPT exclusive access to billions of user prompts from Siri, Writing Tools, and other native iPhone features—cutting competitors off from the scale needed to train and improve their models.

Beyond OS integration, the lawsuit says Apple deprioritizes competing apps like X and Grok in App Store rankings to favor OpenAI and "undermine developing threats to its own monopoly." According to the complaint, while X and Grok sit near the top of their respective categories, neither appears in Apple's editorially controlled "Must-Have Apps" section, where ChatGPT is featured.


Plaintiffs frame this as part of a broader effort by Apple to defend its smartphone monopoly from "super apps" that could lessen consumer dependence on the iPhone. The complaint cites Apple's Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue, who has reportedly expressed concerns that AI could disrupt Apple's business much like the iPhone disrupted Nokia.

The filing also says other AI firms were shut out: Google couldn't reach terms for its Gemini AI because Apple had already decided to integrate ChatGPT—aligning with testimony from Google's CEO earlier this year. Anthropic is said to have faced the same roadblock.

The lawsuit follows public threats from Musk earlier this month to pursue legal action over what he called an "unequivocal antitrust violation." At the time, Apple said the App Store "is designed to be fair and free of bias." A spokesperson added, "We feature thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria. Our goal is to offer safe discovery for users and valuable opportunities for developers, collaborating with many to increase app visibility in rapidly evolving categories."

Apple has not yet commented on the official lawsuit. Filed August 25, 2025, the complaint demands a jury trial and seeks to stop the alleged anticompetitive conduct.


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