Apple Denies Favoritism To Openai, Breach Of Antitrust Rules In Musk's Lawsuit

Apple denied Elon Musk's claim that the iPhone-maker played favoritism in picking OpenAI as its AI partner, over the billionaire's xAI, according to a Bloomberg report early Wednesday.

Musk's social media and AI company, X Corp., sued Apple and OpenAI in August, seeking billions of dollars in damages, alleging that the iPhone maker's move hinders innovation in the AI industry and deprives consumers of choices. Before the lawsuit, Musk had fired a series of posts on X claiming that the prime placement of OpenAI's ChatGPT app on Apple App Store's top picks and ranking pages was unfair.

Seeking the dismissal of the suit, Apple's lawyers said in a court filing Tuesday that even if the company teamed up with OpenAI first, it is "widely known that Apple intends to partner with other generative AI chatbots" in the future, according to the report. The antitrust injury alleged by Musk's companies is based on "speculation on top of speculation," they said.

X Corp. claims that Apple cannot partner with OpenAI "without simultaneously partnering with every other generative AI chatbot-regardless of quality, privacy or safety considerations, technical feasibility, stage of development, or commercial terms," Apple's lawyers wrote. "Of course, the antitrust laws do not require that."

While Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman frequently find themselves at loggerheads, the Tesla founder hasn't had a significant fight with Apple before. Back in 2022, Musk criticized Apple's 30% commission on in-app purchases.

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment was 'neutral' for OpenAI and 'bullish' for X Corp. Both companies are privately held. The sentiment for Apple was 'bearish.'

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