Elon Musk drops Apple from antitrust suit, targets OpenAI instead

Elon Musk spent the better part of two years calling Apple’s ChatGPT integration “creepy spyware” and warning the world about a smartphone-AI monopoly. Now he’s apparently decided Apple isn’t the villain of this particular story after all. On September 14, xAI and X Corp. voluntarily dismissed their antitrust claims against Apple in a Texas federal court, leaving OpenAI as the sole remaining defendant in a lawsuit that once painted both companies as co-conspirators bent on cornering the AI chatbot market. From spyware accusations to a quiet exit The legal saga traces back to June 2024, when Apple first announced it would weave ChatGPT into iOS features including Siri. By August 2025, the rhetoric had hardened into an actual lawsuit. X Corp. and xAI filed suit alleging that the Apple-OpenAI partnership handed OpenAI access to 80% of the chatbot market share, effectively locking out competitors like Musk’s own Grok chatbot. The complaint argued this arrangement harmed competition in both the smartphone and generative AI markets. Apple and OpenAI both tried to get the case tossed. They failed. In November 2025, US District Judge Mark Pittman denied their motions to dismiss, allowing t...