# SpaceXAI drops Apple from their App Store antitrust suit, but keeps going after OpenAI

Musk's companies have made peace with Apple in court, on terms nobody is disclosing, and the remaining case now looks a lot like Musk v. OpenAI, round two.

By Whole Mars Catalog. Published September 14, 2026. Canonical: https://wholemars.com/x-spacexai-apple-antitrust-dismissal

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Elon Musk's legal fight with Apple over their OpenAI deal is over, at least in this courtroom. His fight with OpenAI is not. Since Musk filed the lawsuit Apple's relationship with OpenAI has frayed, with Apple actually filing a lawsuit against OpenAI for stealing trade secrets in recent months. Given those developments, continuing to sue Apple for giving special treatment to OpenAI doesn't seem necessary anymore. 

On September 14, X and SpaceXAI, the company formerly known as xAI, asked a federal judge to throw out their antitrust claims against Apple while leaving every claim against OpenAI in place. The motion, filed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(2), says the plaintiffs "have resolved their claims" against Apple. Apple is not opposing it. Judge Mark Pittman still has to approve.

The one term worth knowing is **"with prejudice."** It means the dismissal is permanent. X and SpaceXAI cannot come back later and file the same claims against Apple again. This isn't just a pause, it closes the door on this issue between SpaceXAI and Apple for good.

**A quick rewind:** Last year Musk accused Apple and OpenAI of working together to keep rival AI apps from getting visibility on the App Store. X and xAI then sued both companies, arguing that Apple's deal to build ChatGPT into Siri and Apple Intelligence handed OpenAI an advantage no competitor could match. Apple and OpenAI both denied everything. The case moved into discovery, which is the phase where lawyers argue about who has to hand over what documents.

So why let Apple walk now? The filing does not say, and neither does anyone else. "Resolved" could mean money changed hands, or that a quiet understanding was reached, or simply that the Apple half of the case was the part least likely to survive. We don't know for sure, since the terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

What remains is a case against three OpenAI entities, including the one now called OpenAI Foundation, over the same alleged unfair advantage. That puts it in familiar territory. Musk's earlier suit against OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Microsoft, which claimed the company abandoned its nonprofit mission and enriched its executives, ended in May when a jury found the claims had been filed too late. That verdict wasn't a ruling on whether Musk was right. The jury ruled that the clock beat him, not the argument.

This case is the next attempt, with a different legal theory and one fewer defendant. My guess is that the Apple dismissal makes the remaining case narrower but not weaker on paper.

Watch for Judge Pittman's order approving the dismissal, any disclosure of what "resolved" means, and whether Grok's position on iPhones changes in the coming months.