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In a major escalation of a recent feud between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple, Musk sued the iPhone maker and OpenAI on Monday. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accuses Apple and OpenAI of colluding to “entrench monopolies and block competition in the emerging AI chatbot market.”

Musk’s lawsuit comes just weeks after he accused Apple of bias on Twitter, blasting the tech giant for “consistently and conspicuously” featuring OpenAI’s ChatGPT on its phones and in search results while ignoring his own chatbot, Grok. Musk’s X and xAI companies, which the lawsuit is filed on behalf of, are suing Apple for colluding with OpenAI to give ChatGPT special access to iOS features and features in search and the App Store. It goes on to allege that the move effectively excludes competitors from accessing Apple’s user base, violating antitrust and unfair competition laws.

The lawsuit, which accuses Apple and OpenAI of “engaging in a series of exclusionary acts to block Grok from the market,” comes as Musk appears desperate to build his “everything app” on the foundation of Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion in 2022. At stake, according to Musk’s lawsuit, is X’s ability to scale Grok, which the lawsuit claims could not exist without access to data from Apple’s customers. Musk claims Apple is helping OpenAI to use its billions of customers to “entrench and expand” its lead over competitors, in violation of U.S. and California antitrust laws.

Musk has raised these complaints about Apple and its alleged promotion of OpenAI’s ChatGPT as recently as last week. The feud has grown so bitter that Musk is now suing the tech giant and OpenAI, arguing that ChatGPT’s Apple integration will cement the status quo, driving innovation to a standstill. The filing calls the arrangement between Apple and OpenAI “unprecedented, anticompetitive access to iOS” that will give OpenAI a permanent lead, especially if it also delays or manipulates App Store rankings for competing apps like Grok.

The lawsuit, which seeks at least $2 billion in damages from Apple and OpenAI, warns the companies’ “hand-in-glove conduct” will have “irreversible” consequences for AI innovation by putting rivals at a permanent disadvantage. Musk’s argument has parallels to Google’s current legal case with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is in part based on its deal with Apple to be the default search engine on iOS.

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In the filing, Musk goes on to argue that Apple is “motivated by its fear that a successful rival super app could someday make iPhones less central, like how WeChat in China has displaced key functions of a standalone smartphone.” Musk also cites an Apple executive allegedly warning that advances in AI could “destroy Apple’s smartphone business.”

OpenAI and Apple, meanwhile, have dismissed the lawsuit. In a statement to Ars Technica, an OpenAI spokesperson said, “It is no surprise that Elon Musk is doubling down on his ongoing pattern of harassment against OpenAI. We will continue to focus on building and improving ChatGPT for everyone.” An Apple spokesperson declined to comment to The Verge.

“By making the deal exclusive, Apple sacrificed the profits it would have earned by integrating multiple chatbots,” the complaint states. “The true motive was Apple and OpenAI’s shared goal of blocking competition.”

The suit also argues that while xAI tried to integrate Grok with Apple’s iPhone software, Apple repeatedly declined. Musk’s legal team says it even turned down requests to feature Grok in the App Store when the new “Imagine” feature was launched, which is when it made the new deal with OpenAI. It goes on to accuse Apple of manipulating App Store search and rankings as well as delaying approval of Grok updates “to stifle its competition.”

A photo illustration shows logos for OpenAI and Apple. Picture: iStockSource: iStock

Apple even rejected a proposed integration between Grok and Apple’s Notes app, allegedly telling Musk that, “We’ve heard that OpenAI is going to make something like this, but it’s not quite right,” a message Musk included in the filing.

Musk has repeatedly warned that Apple’s deal with OpenAI to make ChatGPT the default AI chatbot could permanently tip the scales against new entrants in the competitive AI chatbot market. “If the court does not enjoin Apple and OpenAI’s anticompetitive behavior, Grok may never be able to fairly compete with ChatGPT,” the lawsuit states. “This will make the X app less attractive to both users and investors, and ultimately decrease the enterprise value of X.”

Musk’s companies have asked the court for “a permanent injunction against Apple and OpenAI from enforcing the anti-competitive terms of the Integration Agreement” and damages in excess of $2 billion.

Updated at 6:59 am EST on March 15: Added that OpenAI and Apple both declined to comment.