Elon Musk’s X Corp and SpaceXAI have agreed to resolve their antitrust claims against Apple, bringing an unexpected end to one front of Musk’s legal campaign over the competitive structure of the artificial intelligence market while leaving OpenAI in the crosshairs.
In a court filing on Monday, X and SpaceXAI, a division of SpaceX, asked the court to dismiss their claims against Apple and OpenAI. The filing did not disclose the reason for the dismissal or indicate whether Apple had reached a settlement with Musk’s companies.
The companies said, however, that they would continue pursuing their claims against OpenAI, leaving the legal dispute over Apple’s relationship with the chatbot maker only partially resolved.
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The development removes Apple from a high-profile case that had placed one of the world’s most valuable companies at the center of a broader fight over access to the rapidly expanding generative AI market.
X and SpaceXAI had accused Apple of violating antitrust law by favoring OpenAI’s ChatGPT in Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of AI features integrated into iPhones and other Apple devices. Musk’s companies argued that Apple’s partnership with OpenAI effectively shut out competing AI providers, including Musk’s xAI.
The lawsuit alleged that Apple and OpenAI had “locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing.”
A judge’s decision in November allowing the case to proceed had represented an early legal victory for Musk. But the latest filing means the claims against Apple will no longer move forward, at least in their current form.
OpenAI Says It Was Not Part of the Agreement
The circumstances surrounding the resolution remain unclear. OpenAI said in a separate court filing on Monday that it was not involved in the agreement between X, SpaceXAI and Apple and did not know its terms.
The AI company said it had asked X to provide the agreement because its contents could affect both the allegations remaining in the lawsuit and OpenAI’s defense. That leaves a potentially important distinction between the resolution with Apple and the continuing litigation against OpenAI. The filing by Musk’s companies does not indicate that the underlying allegations about competition in AI chatbots have been abandoned.
OpenAI and Apple have both denied wrongdoing.
Apple has argued that its integration of ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence is not exclusive, pushing back against the central premise of Musk’s antitrust case. OpenAI, meanwhile, has accused Musk of conducting a “campaign of lawfare” against the company.
The withdrawal removes a potentially costly and politically visible antitrust dispute at a time when Apple is increasingly integrating third-party AI into its devices. For OpenAI, the litigation remains another challenge from a rival whose business is increasingly built around competing directly with ChatGPT.
The dispute also shows how distribution is becoming an integral part of the next phase of the AI market. Chatbot companies can build increasingly capable models, but reaching hundreds of millions of consumers depends heavily on access to operating systems, devices, applications and other distribution channels.
Apple’s position gives it considerable influence over which AI services become visible to its enormous installed base of users. Musk’s companies have argued that such control can become an antitrust issue when a platform operator partners with one AI provider while competing services seek comparable access.
Apple’s defense is that offering ChatGPT as an integration does not amount to excluding competing services.
Musk’s AI Battle With OpenAI Continues
The retreat from the Apple claims does not end Musk’s broader legal confrontation with OpenAI.
Musk has pursued multiple legal actions against the company he helped establish, stating that it has departed from its original mission of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity rather than for profit.
In May, OpenAI prevailed in a separate lawsuit brought by Musk over the company’s evolution away from its original nonprofit structure.
The continuing antitrust case marks a different line of attack. Rather than focusing primarily on OpenAI’s corporate structure and mission, the allegations against OpenAI concern its position in the competitive AI market and its relationship with major technology platforms.
That fight has become relevant to Musk’s own ambitions.
ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer application in history following its launch in late 2022, establishing OpenAI as one of the most recognizable consumer AI brands. Musk subsequently positioned xAI as a direct competitor, while his acquisition of X for $33 billion gave the AI company access to a large social platform and a substantial stream of user-generated data for chatbot development.
The combination of X and xAI has given Musk a distribution and data ecosystem with which to challenge OpenAI, while OpenAI has strengthened its own position through partnerships with major technology companies such as Apple.
The Apple dispute therefore represented more than a conventional antitrust complaint. It was also seen as part of a larger struggle over who controls the consumer gateway to AI.
The resolution with Apple could indicate that Musk’s companies have decided the dispute is no longer worth pursuing, or that an agreement outside the disclosed court filing has changed the incentives. The filing itself does not provide enough information to determine which.
For OpenAI, however, the immediate consequence is narrower. The company remains a defendant and says it was not a party to the agreement that resolved the Apple claims. That leaves the most consequential part of Musk’s legal campaign intact. His question is whether the growing concentration of AI capabilities and distribution among a small number of technology companies is creating barriers that prevent rivals such as xAI from competing on equal terms.