Musk’s X Corp and SpaceXAI Drop Apple From AI Antitrust Fight. Is One Legal Headache Gone for the iPhone Maker? - Yahoo Finance

Musk’s X Corp and SpaceXAI Drop Apple From AI Antitrust Fight. Is One Legal Headache Gone for the iPhone Maker?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has one less AI battle to fight. Elon Musk's X Corp and SpaceXAI have moved to dismiss their antitrust claims against Apple in a lawsuit that accused the iPhone maker and OpenAI of restricting competition in smartphones and generative AI chatbots. The filing ends Apple's involvement in the case, although Musk's companies will continue pursuing their claims against OpenAI.

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What it doesn't tell investors is why. The filing did not disclose the reason for the dismissal or say whether Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Musk's companies had reached a settlement.

Bull Case

For Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), the most straightforward positive is that a legal challenge targeting one of its most closely watched AI relationships is going away. The lawsuit alleged that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) violated antitrust law through its integration of OpenAI's ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence features on iPhones and other devices, while X and SpaceXAI claimed the arrangement shut rival AI providers out and helped Apple and OpenAI protect their respective market positions. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) denied wrongdoing and had argued that its OpenAI integration was not exclusive.

The dismissal means that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) no longer has to defend those claims in this particular lawsuit. That holds significance because a U.S. judge had allowed the case to proceed in November 2025, rejecting an earlier effort to end it at that stage. The timing is also notable as Apple's broader AI strategy evolves. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) launched Siri AI in beta this month as part of the next generation of Apple Intelligence. The company says its new Apple Foundation Models were developed in collaboration with Google and its Gemini models, while ChatGPT remains available to users as an extension within Siri.

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That doesn't explain why Musk's companies dropped Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) from the lawsuit. But it does show that Apple's current AI strategy is broader than a single OpenAI integration.

Bear Case

The dismissal leaves an important question unanswered: what ended the dispute?

X and SpaceXAI's filing did not explain their reason for dropping the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) claims and did not disclose whether a settlement had been reached. Apple, Musk's companies, and OpenAI also did not immediately comment to Reuters at the time of its initial reporting.