Musk Drops Apple From Antitrust Suit, Keeps Targeting OpenAI

Elon Musk has ended his legal battle with Apple over the iPhone maker's partnership with OpenAI, according to a court filing released Monday—but the fight against OpenAI itself is far from over.

Background on the dispute#

The conflict originated in 2024 when Apple announced plans to integrate ChatGPT directly into iPhone features. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before departing, took an immediate and vocal stance against the arrangement, denouncing it as permission for OpenAI to install "creepy spyware" on users' devices.

The dispute escalated into formal legal action in August 2025, when Musk filed suit claiming the Apple-OpenAI partnership created a monopoly over AI prompts from iPhone users, thereby dampening competition in both the smartphone and AI chatbot sectors. Tensions further intensified after Musk alleged that Apple was preventing his rival chatbot, Grok, from achieving top rankings on the App Store—a claim he framed as an antitrust violation specific to keeping competitors out.

Why Musk is dropping Apple#

The recent court filing confirms that Musk has voluntarily dismissed all claims against Apple, with no public disclosure of settlement terms or reasoning behind the decision. Crucially, Musk has bound himself contractually never to raise these charges against Apple again.

Notably, Musk has not extended the same courtesy to OpenAI and continues to pursue his monopoly allegations against the AI company.

The case against OpenAI now#

With Apple removed from the litigation, Musk's remaining strategy centers on arguing that OpenAI exploited the Apple partnership—which Apple has stated was never exclusive—to dominate the chatbot market.

OpenAI has consistently dismissed the lawsuit as a harassment tactic, portraying it as cover for Musk's competitive ambitions as his AI startup, SpaceXAI, attempts to gain ground. The company has also criticized the mathematical foundation of Musk's claims, noting that his estimates of market foreclosure range improbably from 0 to 55 percent, based on informal calculations that OpenAI argues lack credibility.

The case now hinges on whether a court will view the partnership as genuinely anticompetitive or simply as a standard commercial arrangement between two firms.