Elon Musk has dropped Apple from an antitrust lawsuit that challenged the company’s integration of ChatGPT into iPhone features, while continuing the case against OpenAI. The change removes Apple from the dispute but does not resolve the remaining allegations.
Musk criticized the Apple-OpenAI partnership when it was announced in 2024, describing the integration as a privacy threat. He later sued, arguing that directing Apple users’ AI prompts toward OpenAI harmed competition in both smartphone and chatbot markets.
The conflict expanded after Musk claimed Apple’s App Store practices made it impossible for another AI company, including his own xAI and its Grok chatbot, to reach the top ranking. Those are Musk’s allegations; dropping Apple means a court will not decide that part of the complaint in its previous form.
OpenAI still faces the suit, so the legal focus now narrows to its conduct and the competitive injury Musk claims. The procedural change should not be read as a ruling that the original Apple allegations were true or false. It shows only that Musk is no longer pursuing Apple through this case while keeping the OpenAI dispute alive.