Key facts
- Elon Musk has settled his antitrust claims against Apple concerning its ChatGPT integration.
- Musk will continue to pursue antitrust claims against OpenAI.
- Musk alleged the Apple-OpenAI deal harmed competition and gave OpenAI a monopoly on Apple users' AI prompts.
- OpenAI has denied allegations of antitrust violations.
- A court previously ordered Apple to provide Musk's companies with internal messages discussing the OpenAI deal.
Elon Musk has settled his antitrust lawsuit against Apple concerning the integration of OpenAI's ChatGPT into Apple's devices, but will continue to pursue similar claims against OpenAI. Musk had alleged that the partnership gave OpenAI a monopoly on Apple users' AI prompts, harming competition in the smartphone and chatbot markets. He also claimed that Apple was making it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach the top of the App Store rankings, which he considered an antitrust violation.
In a court filing on Monday, Musk confirmed the resolution of claims against Apple, though settlement terms were not disclosed. He has refused to drop the same claims against OpenAI, intending to argue that the deal, which Apple stated was not exclusive, allowed OpenAI to monopolize the chatbot market. OpenAI has dismissed Musk's lawsuit as harassment and called his market foreclosure calculations baseless.
OpenAI has publicly stated it felt "burned" by the Apple integration, as it did not generate the expected subscription revenue and the functionality was difficult to discover. Musk's previous lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing it of abandoning its mission to benefit humanity, resulted in a jury ruling that he waited too long to sue, not that his claims were invalid.
Both Apple and OpenAI had previously argued that Musk does not compete in the smartphone industry and therefore lacks standing to pursue these claims. However, a court recently ordered Apple to provide Musk's companies with internal communications regarding the OpenAI deal, which may help Musk refine his market foreclosure calculations as the narrowed litigation heads to trial this fall.