United States of America

Musk Drops Apple From Antitrust Suit

Did dropping Apple expose a flimsy antitrust crusade or is the iOS-ChatGPT deal exactly what the Sherman Act exists to stop?

Published SEP 15

Story

Above: Elon Musk at a meeting in Beijing, China on May 14. Image credit: Johannes Neudecker/picture alliance/Getty Images

The Facts

Elon Musk's X Corp and SpaceXAI said Monday they resolved their claims against Apple in an antitrust lawsuit alleging the iPhone maker conspired with OpenAI to monopolize markets for smartphones and generative AI chatbots.
Bloomberg
CNBC
Reuters
In a filing in federal court in Texas, the companies moved under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(2) to dismiss their claims against Apple with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled. Apple did not oppose the motion.
9to5Mac
MacRumors
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman granted the motion Monday while leaving intact the claims against OpenAI. The filing did not explain the reason for the dismissal or disclose whether a settlement had been reached.
The Washington Examiner
Claims Journal
TheWrap
OpenAI said in a separate filing it was not involved in the agreement and does not know its terms. It asked X to produce the document and sought a 14-day extension of Tuesday's deadline to file a motion for summary judgment.
TheWrap
Reuters
The suit, filed in August 2025 in Fort Worth, Texas, said the ChatGPT integration into Siri, Writing Tools and the iPhone camera gave OpenAI access to billions of prompts, and accused Apple of delaying app reviews and manipulating App Store rankings.
Verge
Engadget
Al Jazeera
Apple, which called the claims "speculation on top of speculation," and OpenAI both denied wrongdoing and sought dismissal, but Pittman rejected those motions in November. OpenAI has described Musk's suits as a "campaign of lawfare."
Ars Technica
MacRumors
Reuters

Sources Split

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RIGHT

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The Spin

Narrative A

Dropping Apple from the case says everything about how flimsy this antitrust crusade always was. Grok itself topped the App Store charts, as did DeepSeek and Perplexity, which shreds the whole preferential treatment theory. The OpenAI fight looks just as shaky, with his earlier lawsuit getting thrown out this May. Lawfare is exactly the right word for Musk's strategy

CNBC

AppleInsider

BBC News

Narrative B

A smartphone gatekeeper with 65% market share cutting an exclusive deal with the chatbot leader holding over 80% is exactly the kind of arrangement the Sherman Act exists to stop. Baking ChatGPT into iOS hands one company billions of Siri prompts while rivals starve for data. Self-preferencing sank Google Shopping in Europe, and the same logic applies here.