Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court in Texas on Monday against Apple and OpenAI, alleging that the companies engaged in anti-competitive practices that hindered xAI’s ability to compete in the AI market.
According to the complaint, Apple and OpenAI have “locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing.” The lawsuit claims the companies conspired to limit the visibility of xAI products, including the X app and the Grok chatbot, on the Apple App Store. xAI argues that, if not for Apple’s exclusive agreement with OpenAI, its apps would have greater prominence on the platform.
Neither Apple nor OpenAI immediately responded to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Musk publicly criticized Apple, stating that its actions “make it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store.” Apple’s partnership with OpenAI has integrated the ChatGPT AI platform into iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers.
xAI, launched less than two years ago, acquired X (formerly Twitter) in March for $33 billion to support chatbot training and has integrated its Grok AI into Tesla vehicles. The company competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI as well as Chinese startup DeepSeek.
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In a separate legal action, Musk is suing OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in federal court in California to halt OpenAI’s conversion from a nonprofit to a for-profit business. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit organization.
Apple’s App Store practices have faced multiple lawsuits in recent years, including an ongoing case brought by the video game developer Epic Games, which challenged Apple’s app payment policies and led to a court ruling requiring greater competition for app transactions.
