It was already known that the ChatGPT deal went so poorly with Apple that OpenAI considered a lawsuit, but these complaints have finally been put to paper in a SpaceXAI lawsuit filing.
Apple and OpenAI were dragged into an antitrust lawsuit thanks to baseless accusations from Elon Musk. The lawsuit is ongoing in spite of Apple being removed from the case.
OpenAI didn't get to see what settlement Apple and SpaceXAI reached, but it has shared exactly why the whole lawsuit should be tossed out. The filing details the maddeningly odd lawsuit brought on by Elon Musk, and in it, shared how disappointing its partnership with Apple actually was.
It was previously leaked that OpenAI was unhappy with the Apple partnership, and the company even considered a lawsuit. The new filing confirms the displeasure in the partnership, at least.
Sections D and F of the filing detail that Apple's implementation of ChatGPT in iOS and Siri was flawed from the start. The opt-in nature and specificity of the integration meant users would more likely open the ChatGPT app than interact with it via Siri.
Doomed to fail
The feature launched in December 2024 and by January 2025, it was clear that initial forecasts had to be cut. By March 2026, OpenAI classified the integration as "persistently underperforming."
In that timeframe Apple had introduced its new Apple Foundation Models that were built using a Gemini Frontier model for distillation. And while Apple and OpenAI didn't have an exclusivity agreement, Apple never released more extensions for Siri.
Apple's deal with OpenAI also meant that there was no way to benefit from user access to ChatGPT via Siri because no data was collected or trained on. The only possible benefit from the deal was a halo effect that drew in new users and paid subscribers, which didn't coalesce.
OpenAI wanted that iPhone halo effect
At the other end of things, Grok, which is part of xAI, which was absorbed into SpaceXAI, was experiencing some level of popularity. The filings for the mergers and such bragged at how competitive and popular Grok is even as the antitrust lawsuit was filed.
Apparently, the lawsuit is built upon the following argument, laid out by OpenAI in the filing:
Their damages expert posits that, but for the Agreement, Plaintiffs' chatbot, Grok, would have been integrated into Apple Intelligence; and if that happened, Grok would have been better in some undefined way; and if that happened, X would have developed as a "super app"; and if that happened, X would have competed with the App Store; and if that happened, the fee Apple has charged app developers since 2008 and has no plans to change would have dropped from 30% to ... in less than a year; and if all of this happened, Plaintiffs would hav had higher revenues in 2025 and would have raised more money from investors.
Yes, it is as ludicrous as it sounds.
OpenAI also asserts that it seems Musk never sought to bring Grok in as a Siri extension similar to ChatGPT. It was assumed from the start that some exclusivity agreement that didn't exist would prevent that.
It is certainly a mess of a lawsuit, and one that likely won't end soon even as Musk hopes to battle his former business partner Sam Altman. OpenAI may have a winning argument against SpaceXAI, but it may not have as much luck against Apple in its trade secret theft lawsuit.
