Tesla CEO Elon Musk is taking legal action against Apple and OpenAI, arguing in a lawsuit filed Monday that the two companies have colluded to maintain monopolies in the nascent AI chatbot market. The suit, brought by Musk’s companies X and xAI, comes after months of conflict, most recently when Musk accused Apple of favoring OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the App Store last week, despite Grok’s absence from the “Must Have” list for several weeks.

In the suit, X and xAI go further, alleging Apple and OpenAI have an exclusive deal that grants ChatGPT preferential access to iPhone features and shuts out competitors. Musk claims the deal violates antitrust and unfair competition laws, hampering his ambitions for an “everything app” centered on the foundation of Twitter, which he owns.

The suit says Apple integrated ChatGPT into iOS by default across Siri, the company’s Writing Tools, and other services. The filing says Apple granted OpenAI “exclusive rights” to these features, letting OpenAI use the data from billions of users who open its products automatically. Chatbots train and improve using user prompts, and X claims Apple is de facto granting OpenAI a monopoly on user data that competitors need to scale. The deal also lets OpenAI solidify its lead by making it more difficult for new chatbots to reach Apple’s billion-plus users, X says.

The lawsuit estimates OpenAI currently has at least 80 percent of the chatbot market share, and Apple’s integration makes it “possible” to have a near-permanent share of more than 50 percent.

In court documents, Musk also alleges Apple fears competition from a successful super app might make iPhones less essential over time. Citing Apple executive Eddy Cue, the suit claims executives fear that progress in AI could “destroy Apple’s smartphone business.” Musk claims the closed nature of the deal between Apple and OpenAI is an attempt to entrench those monopolies at the expense of innovation and consumer choice.

The complaint goes on to compare the deal to Apple’s long-standing arrangement with Google to be the exclusive search engine on iPhones. U.S. regulators have argued that the deal solidified Google’s search monopoly, while Apple and OpenAI have not disputed the structure of the deal in public.

Musk’s lawsuit follows an increasing stream of conflicts with Apple after the deal was announced in April. Musk said last week that he canceled a collaboration with Apple and a personal meeting with CEO Tim Cook over his concerns with the deal. Musk’s company has also repeatedly requested to be “heard” by Cook, but claims Apple has not responded, except to accuse Musk of “bullying” one of its employees.

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Apple’s integration gives ChatGPT access to phone features that Musk says are “mission-critical” for all modern apps. Siri is Apple’s virtual assistant, and its built-in integration is the most direct way for customers to use Siri, X claims. Siri used over 1.5 billion user requests daily globally in 2024, representing more daily prompts than all generative AI chatbots combined in 2024, according to the filing.

Other features like Apple’s Writing Tools and dictation will give OpenAI a similarly wide net of new user data to train and improve its models, while Grok will be missing out. By tying Grok’s data off from Siri and other features, Apple and OpenAI are intentionally excluding it from market share that it would otherwise have had in a free market, Musk’s lawsuit says.

Musk’s complaint says Apple’s terms and rejected X’s repeated requests for similar integrations for Grok. The suit says Apple refused requests to feature Grok in the App Store, including during the chatbot’s launch with its new “Imagine” feature. The lawsuit claims Apple also delayed Grok updates and fixed App Store rankings to keep it off the “must have” list.

Musk argues the stakes for X and the broader market go beyond losing the chance to build a successful chatbot. The lawsuit also notes that Musk has invested billions in xAI to build the foundation for an “everything app” around the combination of Twitter and Grok.

Apple customers may also face consequences, according to the filing, including paying monopoly prices for iPhones and having access to far fewer, worse chatbots for Siri. OpenAI is already raising prices on its new “plus” subscription, which the filing says could double in four years. “Defendants’ anticompetitive conduct has destroyed X’s ability to grow its user base,” the lawsuit states.

Apple, responding to Ars Technica, declined to comment. OpenAI dismissed the filing, saying, “If you can’t find something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. This is just the latest in Elon’s ongoing pattern of harassment.”