Musk Presses Dual Legal Battles Against OpenAI and Apple

Elon Musk is waging simultaneous legal wars against OpenAI and its partners, with significant developments unfolding across two separate courtrooms. On May 15, a U.S. magistrate judge expanded the discovery phase of an antitrust lawsuit filed by Musk's xAI against Apple and OpenAI. The lawsuit alleges the two companies colluded to hinder competing large language models on the App Store. Judge Hal R. Ray, Jr. designated Apple Senior Vice President Craig Federighi as a document custodian, ruling he likely possesses unique evidence regarding OpenAI's integration into Apple Intelligence. The judge denied a similar request for Apple CEO Tim Cook and rejected demands for documents on Apple's internal AI usage and general iPhone sales. The court ordered Apple to produce documents related to potential exclusivity clauses in its Google partnership by June 17. Simultaneously, the court granted OpenAI's request to compel Musk to produce emails from Tesla and SpaceX, along with text and XChat accounts, by June 3.

The following day, closing arguments concluded in Oakland for Musk's landmark lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft over the company's origins. Musk alleges that CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman betrayed a commitment to keep OpenAI a nonprofit, shifting to a for-profit model for personal enrichment. He seeks damages, the ouster of Altman, and a reversal of the corporate restructuring, which could transfer $180 billion to the nonprofit arm. OpenAI and Microsoft counter that Musk's claims fall outside the statute of limitations and that he participated in early for-profit discussions. A jury will begin deliberations next week, though Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will determine the final verdict and remedies, with the outcome potentially impacting planned AI industry IPOs.