Elon Musk’s xAI sued Apple and OpenAI for billions of dollars yesterday, alleging their partnership is preventing “groking” from becoming a common verb.
The lawsuit alleges that the “two monopolists” teaming up last year to embed ChatGPT into iPhones led them to corner the AI market and throttle Musk’s companies:
- The legal complaint claims that Apple is preventing xAI’s Grok chatbot from growing by making ChatGPT the only AI tool automatically integrated into its devices. The suit also asserts that Apple is artificially suppressing Grok’s App Store rankings and delaying its app updates.
- xAI’s lawyers argue that undermining Grok hurts X, which draws on Grok’s functionalities in its quest to become an “everything app.”
But…X users were quick to point out that apps from OpenAI rivals DeepSeek and Perplexity reached the App Store’s No. 1 slot after Apple partnered with the ChatGPT maker. And OpenAI said the lawsuit is “consistent with Mr. Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment.” Musk previously sued OpenAI, which he helped found but later left, accusing it of illegally straying from its nonprofit mission last year.
It’s not Apple’s first antitrust accusation: A government lawsuit similarly argued that Apple thwarted super apps that could make it easier for people to ditch iPhones. Meanwhile, a judge in a separate case sided with Fortnite maker Epic Games and ordered Apple to remove barriers for competing payment options for in-app purchases.—SK