Musk is amping up his war against Apple and OpenAI, suing both on Monday for anticompetitive practices to lock in their respective monopolies. The lawsuit follows Musk’s recent tirades that Apple has only promoted OpenAI’s ChatGPT while its own Grok chatbot has been absent from the App Store “Must Have” list for weeks.

Filed on behalf of his companies X and xAI, Musk’s lawsuit delves deeper into allegations that Apple and OpenAI have forged an exclusive deal. He claims the arrangement not only gives ChatGPT extraordinary access to iPhone features but purposefully locks out rivals from Apple’s massive audience. The lawsuit accuses both Apple and OpenAI of antitrust and unfair competition practices, undermining his long-stated plans to build an “everything app” atop Twitter, which Musk bought in 2022.

Musk’s lawsuit claims that Apple embedded ChatGPT directly into iOS, making it the default chatbot for Siri, Apple’s Writing Tools, and other features, while giving OpenAI exclusive access to billions of user prompts. X argues that data is critical for training and improving chatbot models, and without access to it, other rivals like Grok have no way to scale. The lawsuit estimates that OpenAI already controls at least 80 percent of the chatbot market, and with Apple’s integration, could cement its position permanently.

“Generative AI chatbots would vigorously compete with one another in a fair market,” the filing states. “Instead, defendants’ anticompetitive conduct has handed a substantial portion of the market to ChatGPT.”

The filing accuses Apple of being motivated by the fear that a successful rival super app could one day make iPhones less essential, similar to the all-in-one replacement WeChat has become for standalone smartphone functions in China. The filing even cites Apple executive Eddy Cue as having expressed concerns that advances in AI could “destroy Apple’s smartphone business.” Musk’s lawsuit paints the ChatGPT deal as a defensive play by Apple to protect its iPhone monopoly, while simultaneously helping OpenAI build an unbeatable head start in generative AI.

Apple’s Integration Gives ChatGPT Exclusive Access

The lawsuit compares Apple’s deal to its longtime arrangement with Google to make it the default search engine, which U.S. regulators have previously alleged locked in Google’s monopoly. Musk alleges Apple has rejected multiple overtures by xAI to integrate Grok with iOS, and even rebuffed requests to feature Grok in the App Store, including on its own new “Imagine” feature launch. The lawsuit also accuses Apple of manipulating App Store rankings and delaying Grok updates to weaken competition.

At stake, Musk alleges, is not just Grok’s ability to compete, but the future of AI-driven platforms. In fact, the lawsuit says Siri handled 1.5 billion user requests per day on a global basis in 2024—greater than the total volume of prompts for all generative AI chatbots for the year. If all those prompts flow to OpenAI, then it controls as much as 55 percent of all potential chatbot interactions, X alleges.

The lawsuit also highlights the potential consequences for consumers. Apple users may end up with fewer choices and less capable AI chatbots, while paying monopoly prices for iPhones, the filing warns. OpenAI, it says, could also use its dominant position to boost its subscription prices. The company has plans to double its “plus” subscription over the next four years, the lawsuit notes. “That plan would be unfeasible unless OpenAI has power over marketwide prices,” the lawsuit alleges.

Musk also flags a potential chilling effect on investment, noting that if Apple continues to “press its thumb firmly on the scale” to promote ChatGPT, then investors may see little value in backing rival chatbots. That deprives would-be competitors of the resources they need to compete, the filing says, and could eventually lead to talent loss as Big Tech firms swoop in and poach developers from underfunded startups.

The lawsuit also points to the financial logic that suggests the Apple-OpenAI deal was about competitive advantage, not direct revenue. The lawsuit claims OpenAI has provided ChatGPT to Apple for free, effectively paying the tech giant to partner, while Apple expects no near-term profit from the arrangement. Musk’s filing suggests both companies value the exclusivity over direct revenue since it broadly blocks rivals and cements their control of the market.

“By making the deal exclusive, Apple sacrificed the profits it would have earned by integrating multiple chatbots,” the complaint states. “The true motive was Apple and OpenAI’s shared goal of blocking competition.”

For Musk, the stakes of the legal fight could not be higher, and he frames them as existential for Grok. Without relief, the lawsuit warns Grok may never be able to fairly compete, leaving X with fewer users and less appeal to investors. “Because Grok’s functionality is a key feature of the X app, the X app is more attractive the better Grok performs,” the filing states. “Defendants’ conduct makes Grok less able to compete with ChatGPT, leading to fewer customers, less revenue, and ultimately a depressed enterprise value for X.”

Musk’s companies are seeking billions of dollars in damages in addition to a permanent injunction to block Apple’s integration of ChatGPT. In a statement to Ars Technica, OpenAI dismissed the filing as part of Musk’s “ongoing pattern of harassment.” Apple did not immediately comment.

If a court sides with Musk and his argument that Apple and OpenAI have illegally locked in monopolies, it could decide not only the future of Grok but also how competitive the next chapter of AI innovation is.