X and xAI file antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI over Grok

TECHNOLOGY

X and xAI file antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI over Grok

Elon Musk’s companies resolve their high-profile legal battle alleging Apple and OpenAI colluded to suppress Grok

by
Editorial Team

Sep. 14, 2026

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Photo: Tima Miroshnichenko / Pexels

X Corp. and xAI filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI on August 25, 2025, in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, accusing the companies of conspiring to bury Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, in favor of ChatGPT.

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What the lawsuit was about

The core allegation was straightforward: Apple’s decision to deeply integrate ChatGPT into iOS gave OpenAI’s product a structural advantage that competitors like Grok couldn’t overcome through merit alone. The plaintiffs argued that this integration harmed Grok’s visibility, damaged its App Store ranking, and effectively locked xAI out of a distribution channel that reaches over a billion iPhone users. The companies sought billions in damages, contending that Apple’s preferential treatment for ChatGPT amounted to anticompetitive collusion.

Apple and OpenAI both moved to dismiss the case. On November 13, 2025, a federal judge denied those motions, allowing the lawsuit to proceed to discovery. The discovery phase became notable for its extensive disputes over evidence production, with key rulings in 2026 that included adding Apple’s Craig Federighi, the company’s senior vice president of software engineering, as a document custodian. The court also denied OpenAI’s requests for xAI’s source code, a ruling that favored the plaintiffs.

As of mid-September 2026, no settlement has been confirmed by court records or reputable outlets. All parties remain engaged in active litigation procedures, with no settlement conclusions announced.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.