Elon Musk’s companies did not just drop their antitrust claims against Apple quietly. A federal judge now wants to know exactly why they did it, and he wants to see the paperwork.
US District Judge Mark Pittman ordered X Corp and SpaceXAI to hand over, for his private review, any agreements they reached with Apple connected to their decision to dismiss the claims, as reported by Politico. The order came after OpenAI asked the court to force Musk’s companies to disclose what happened behind the scenes.
Pittman Rejected Both Companies’ First Attempt to Kill the Case
Apple and OpenAI both tried to get the lawsuit thrown out shortly after it was filed. Pittman denied both requests in November 2025 and let the case move into discovery, where it has stayed contested for nearly a year.
OpenAI Pushed the Judge to Get Involved
OpenAI said in its own court filing that it had no part in the discussions between Apple and Musk’s companies and does not know what the resulting agreement says. Its lawyers asked X and SpaceXAI to produce the agreement directly and requested a 14-day extension on their deadline to file a motion for summary judgment.
X and SpaceXAI agreed to the extension. They did not agree to hand over the Apple agreement, so OpenAI turned to the court to force the issue.
OpenAI argued that the terms could significantly affect its defenses, including its contention that its agreement with Apple did not prevent the company from holding business discussions with Musk’s companies or other competitors.
The Dismissal Came Without a Single Explanation
X Corp and SpaceXAI filed their motion to voluntarily dismiss the Apple claims on September 14, asking for the dismissal to be with prejudice. That means they cannot bring the same claims against Apple again.
The motion offered no reasoning for the decision and Apple did not oppose it. Neither side said whether money changed hands or whether Apple made any changes to how it operates.
The Lawsuit Still Targets a Trillion-Dollar Market
The original complaint, filed in August 2025 in the Northern District of Texas, accused Apple and OpenAI of acting as “two monopolists joining forces to ensure their continued dominance” in artificial intelligence. Musk’s companies pointed to Apple’s 2024 deal to build ChatGPT into the iPhone through Siri and Apple Intelligence as the center of that arrangement.
The complaint also accused Apple of manipulating App Store rankings to disadvantage rival chatbots, including SpaceXAI’s Grok.
