Judge Allows Elon Musk's Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple and OpenAI to Proceed

A federal judge has cleared the way for the antitrust lawsuit filed by X Corp. against Apple and OpenAI to proceed, denying motions from both companies to have the case thrown out. The suit, brought by Elon Musk's X Corp. and x.AI, alleges the exclusive integration of ChatGPT into Apple's iOS platform creates an illegal monopoly.

In the order, issued today from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Judge Mark T. Pittman denied both motions. The judge wrote that the court finds the issues are "more well-suited for adjudication through a motion(s) for summary judgment," adding that the ruling should not be construed as a judgment on the merits of the litigation.

The lawsuit was originally filed in August, alleging that Apple and OpenAI's deal made ChatGPT the only generative AI chatbot integrated with core iPhone features like Siri. X Corp. claims the arrangement illegally forecloses competitors, including its own Grok chatbot, from the billions of user prompts needed to scale and innovate in the generative AI and smartphone markets.


In their motions to dismiss, filed earlier this month, both companies argued their agreement isn't exclusive and doesn't prevent Apple from integrating other AI models. They contended that X Corp. failed to plausibly allege any actual harm to competition or establish that it had the legal standing to bring the claims in the first place.

With today's ruling, the case will now proceed into the discovery phase of litigation.