Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup Xai is suing Openai and Apple over allegations that they are engaged in anti-competitive conduct. The lawsuit, filed Monday in a Texas court, denies businesses of “conspiracy to monopolize the market for smartphones and generator AI chatbots.”
Musk had threatened to sue Apple and Openai earlier this month, making ChatGpt after claiming that other AI companies were “not possible” to reach the top spot in the App Store. Musk's Xai creates a Grok Chatbot.
Musk's lawsuit challenges a major partnership between Apple and Openai, announced last year. This partner has Device Maker integrated Openai's artificial intelligence capabilities into the operating system. Musk's case is about to cancel one of Apple's most important forays into AI and Openai's marquee deal, as they claim their agreement “confined the market.”
“The defendant has participated in illegal agreements and conspiracy to leverage Apple's monopoly in the US smartphone market and maintain Openai's monopoly in the generated AI chatbot,” the complaint states. They also ask for the “recovering billions of damages.”
Openai rejected Musk's allegations and framed the lawsuit as part of his broader attack on the company. “This latest submission is consistent with Musk's continued harassment patterns,” an Openai spokesperson said.
Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit is the latest front in an ongoing feud between Musk and Altman. The two high-tech billionaires founded Openai together in 2015, but have since been increasingly out of public order and have filed lawsuits frequently.
Musk left Openai after proposing to take over the company in 2018, then filed multiple lawsuits against the company over plans to move to a for-profit company. Altman and Openai rejected Musk's criticism and framed him as a petty, former partner of Vindictive.
“It's sad to come to this with those we've admired deeply. He urged us to aim higher, then pleaded with us when we said we were going to fail, and started our competitors and then started meaningful progress towards the Open-I mission without him.”
The spit between Altman and Musk returned earlier this month after the latter threat to Apple. Musk's claim that Apple was manipulating the App Store rankings to rule out other AI companies led to a swap of posts where two technical moguls challenge each other and shaming them.
“This is a surprising argument given that Elon claims to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own company and harm people he doesn't like,” Altman posted in response to Musk's claim that Apple is in favor of Openai.
Openai is currently focusing on a $500 million valuation. It will be the most valuable private company at $350 billion, surpassing current title owner Musk's SpaceX Rocket Maker.
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