Elon Musk's X Corp and SpaceXAI have requested the dismissal of antitrust charges against Apple. However, the legal challenge against OpenAI regarding the generative AI market remains active.
The removal of Apple from the antitrust filing
X Corp and SpaceXAI, a division of SpaceX, have officially moved to drop their claims against Apple in a lawsuit that prevviously alleged the tech giant conspired with OpenAI to monopolize the smartphone and chatbot markets. According to the report, the original lawsuit claimed that Apple violated antitrust laws by exclusively integrating OpenAI's ChatGPT into its "Apple Intelligence" features across iPhones and other hardware.
Apple had previously defended its actions by asserting that its integration of OpenAI technology is not exclusive , meaning other chatbot developers could potentially compete for access to Apple users. By removing Apple from the proceedings, the legal focus shifts entirely toward the relationship between OpenAI and the broader market, effectively ending the high-profile clash between Elon Musk's ventures and the iPhone maker.
OpenAI's 'lawfare' accusation and the May court defeat
While Apple is out of the picture, the legal battle against OpenAI continues. OpenAI has pushed back aggressively, accusing Elon Musk of conducting a "campaign of lawfare" against the company in court filings. this current antitrust struggle follows a separate legal defeat for Musk in May, when OpenAI successfully defeated a lawsuit alleging that the company had abandoned its original non-profit mission to benefit humanity in favor of pursuing profit.
The ongoing case centers on whether OpenAI and its partners have locked up markets to prevent competitors like xAI from gaining a foothold. As the report says, a judge had previously ruled in November that the antitrust case could proceed, providing Musk with a preliminary victory that now allows the claims against OpenAI to move forward despite earlier attempts to have the suit dismissed.
The $33 billion X acquisition and the race for AI data
This legal friction is part of a larger strategic play by Elon Musk to challenge the dominance of ChatGPT, which became the fastest-growing consumer application in history after its 2022 launch. To compete, Musk's xAI leveraged the acquisition of X last year in a deal valued at $33 billion. This transaction was specifically designed to provide xAI with a massive stream of real-time data to enhance the training and capabilities of its own chatbot.
The struggle for dominance in the generative AI space is not just about software, but about the pipelines of data and the hardware gateways—like the iPhone—that connect AI to millions of users. By attempting to challenge the Apple-OpenAI partnership, X Corp and SpaceXAI were essentially fighting for a more open ecosystem where xAI could compete on equal footing for device-level integration.
The unexplained silence on a potential Apple settlement
One critical piece of the puzzle remains missing: the reason for the sudden dismissal. The court filing submitted by X Corp and SpaceXAI did not explain why they are dropping the claims against Apple, nor did it clarify if a private settlement was reached between Elon Musk and Apple. Neither Apple nor OpenAI provided immediate comments on the filing, leaving the nature of the exit ambiguous.
Furthermore, it remains unverified whether this move is a strategic retreat to avoid a losing battle over Apple's "non-exclusive" claims or a tactical shift to concentrate all legal resources on OpenAI. The lack of transparency regarding the dismissal leaves open the question of whether Apple provided some other concession to Musk's companies to exit the suit quietly.
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