X owner Elon Musk, following through on a legal threat he made two weeks ago, filed an antitrust lawsuit on Monday accusing Apple and OpenAI of colluding to make the artificial intelligence company’s ChatGPT rank higher than his Grok chatbot in the iPhone maker’s app store.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges the two companies are maintaining monopolies on the smartphone and generative AI markets and effectively shutting out competition.

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“This is a tale of two monopolists joining forces to ensure their continued dominance in a world rapidly driven by the most powerful technology humanity has ever created: artificial intelligence,” the 61-page filing states. “Working in tandem, Defendants Apple and OpenAI have locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing.”

Musk first made the legal threat on Aug. 11, claiming Apple “makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store.” He said this amounts to an “unequivocal antitrust violation.”

ChatGPT currently ranks first on the Apple App Store in the “Top Free Apps” and “Productivity” categories, while Grok is ranked fifth in the latter category. X’s chatbot is not listed on the store’s top six free apps.

While Grok may not be reaching first place, that doesn’t mean other ChatGPT competitors aren’t. DeepSeek and Perplexity are two such examples.

Last year, Apple and OpenAI partnered to streamline the integration of ChatGPT into Apple’s software. Musk’s lawyers argued the “exclusive” partnership prevented not just xAI but also Google and Anthropic from integrating with Apple.

“As a result of the Apple-OpenAI deal, ChatGPT is not just the default—it is the only generative AI chatbot with a first-party integration into Apple’s smartphones,” the lawsuit reads. “This means that iPhone users who want to use a generative AI chatbot for certain tasks on their iPhones can use only ChatGPT.”

The tech billionaire also raised concerns about ChatGPT’s privacy and security, which Apple’s corporate development team appeared to ignore when similar concerns were brought by the AI product team.

“Potential security issues also do not justify Apple’s choice to integrate only with OpenAI,” the suit asserts. “In fact, although Apple CEO Tim Cook posted on the X platform that the AppleOpenAI integration is ‘built to protect user privacy at every step,’ Apple still partnered with OpenAI despite internal concerns over OpenAI’s safety and security so that both companies could jointly pursue their anticompetitive ends.”

Musk accuses both companies of violating six counts under the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, one count each for civil conspiracy and unfair competition, and two counts under the Texas Free Enterprise and Antitrust Act. The plaintiffs seek billions in damages and demand a trial by jury.

“xAI and X have both been injured by this conduct, which has already caused them significant damages that will amount to billions of dollars in combined lost sales and enterprise values,” the document says.

MUSK THREATENS APPLE WITH ANTITRUST LAWSUIT OVER GROK RANKING IN APP STORE

OpenAI called Monday’s filing an example of “Mr. Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” a spokesperson said in a response provided to multiple news outlets. Musk has frequently criticized OpenAI, led by rival Sam Altman.

Apple did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.