It started with spyware talk

When Apple announced the ChatGPT integration in 2024, Musk called it a deal to put spyware on iPhones. A year later he turned that complaint into a lawsuit.

“creepy spyware”

The App Store grievance

Musk argued Grok was being kept out of the top spot, and that the Apple deal handed OpenAI a monopoly over iPhone users' AI prompts in both the phone and chatbot markets.

“Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store”

Apple walks, OpenAI stays

In a Monday court filing, Musk resolved every claim against Apple and agreed never to raise them again. No terms were disclosed. He pointedly kept the identical claims alive against OpenAI.

OpenAI calls it harassment

OpenAI says the suit is pressure from a rival racing to catch up, and that Musk won't even name what share of the chatbot market is foreclosed. His own estimate spans 0 to 55 percent.

“back-of-the-envelope math”

The burned-partner defense

By May, OpenAI was publicly saying Apple buried the ChatGPT features instead of promoting them. A deal it expected to bring in billions a year became an argument that it never monopolized anything.

He may already have what he wanted

A court ordered Apple to hand over internal employee messages about the OpenAI deal this summer. That evidence could sharpen the foreclosure math Musk takes to trial this fall.