Elon Musk drops Apple from antitrust lawsuit, keeps case vs OpenAI

In short: Elon Musk’s companies have dropped Apple from an antitrust lawsuit tied to iPhone ChatGPT features, but they are continuing the case against OpenAI.

What happened

A Monday court filing shows Musk has “resolved all claims” against Apple and is voluntarily dismissing Apple from the case. The filing does not say whether Apple and Musk reached a settlement, or why the claims were dropped. It does say Musk agreed he will not bring the same claims against Apple again.

Musk’s dispute started after Apple announced it would add ChatGPT features to the iPhone. Musk criticized that plan in 2024, and in 2025 he sued Apple and OpenAI, arguing the deal gave them too much control over users’ AI prompts (the questions people type into a chatbot, like asking a helper for answers).

Now the lawsuit is narrower and focused on OpenAI. Musk is still arguing that OpenAI used its Apple deal to unfairly dominate the chatbot market. Apple has said the ChatGPT integration was not exclusive, meaning Apple was not promising to use only OpenAI.

OpenAI has denied any antitrust wrongdoing and has argued Musk’s market share estimates are unreliable. The case is expected to move toward a trial this fall. The Ars Technica report notes that a court recently ordered Apple to hand over internal messages about the OpenAI deal, which could have helped Musk refine his arguments.

Why it matters

This fight could shape how AI features get built into popular phones and apps. If courts decide certain partnerships block competition, it could change which chatbots you can easily access on your devices, and how many choices you have.

Source: Arstechnica