# Musk drops Apple, keeps chasing OpenAI

> Musk quietly settled with Apple and walked away with its internal messages, leaving OpenAI alone in the antitrust crosshairs.
- Title: Musk drops Apple, keeps chasing OpenAI · Ars Technica
- Summary: Musk quietly settled with Apple and walked away with its internal messages, leaving OpenAI alone in the antitrust crosshairs. Dropping Apple looks less like…
- Keywords: antitrust, openai, apple, elon musk, litigation, technology, science, Musk, drops, keeps, chasing, Ars Technica
- Source: Ars Technica — https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/musk-drops-apple-from-antitrust-suit-but-keeps-gunning-for-openai
- Published: 2026-09-14T19:45:13+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: antitrust, openai, apple, elon musk, litigation, technology, science
## 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.
## Key takeaway

Dropping Apple looks less like a retreat than a trade: Musk got the internal messages he needed and pointed the remaining case entirely at OpenAI.