{"slug": "spacexai-dropped-its-antitrust-suit-against-apple-the-judge-demands-to-know-why", "title": "SpaceXAI Dropped Its Antitrust Suit Against Apple. The Judge Demands to Know Why", "summary": "U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman ordered SpaceXAI and X Corp. on September 15 to submit any agreements with Apple related to the resolution of their antitrust claims for in camera review, after the plaintiffs withdrew the suit on September 14 without disclosing settlement terms. The original suit, filed in 2025, alleged Apple deprioritized ChatGPT competitors in its App Store; OpenAI, still a defendant, filed an emergency motion asking the plaintiffs to explain their motion to dismiss.", "body_md": "Look, this is a free country, and there’s no law that says you have to keep suing Apple for alleged antitrust after you start. But after X Corp. and SpaceXAI withdrew such a suit earlier this week, the judge in the case simply [needs to know why](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/15/elon-musk-antitrust-apple-openai-01078840).\n\nU.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman of the Fort Worth Division, [issued a brief order on September 15](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.408471/gov.uscourts.txnd.408471.392.0.pdf): The plaintiffs, who are also suing OpenAI, litigation that’s still apparently active, must “deliver to the Court for in camera review any agreement or combination of agreements with Apple that relate to the resolution of Plaintiffs’ claims against Apple in this litigation.”\n\nAs Reuters notes, on Monday SpaceXAI and X Corp. [put their claims against Apple to bed](https://www.reuters.com/world/musks-x-corp-spacexai-resolve-antitrust-lawsuit-against-apple-2026-09-14/) without divulging any sort of settlement or deal. OpenAI submitted an emergency motion asking the plaintiffs to explain their motion to dismiss.\n\n Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation.\n\nxAI will take immediate legal action.\n\n— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) [August 12, 2025](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1955073616996975095?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)\n\nThe suit from last year claims that Apple had been deprioritizing competitors to ChatGPT in its App Store. [Per CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/25/musk-lawsuit-apple-openai-monopoly.html), the original suit read in part, “In a desperate bid to protect its smartphone monopoly, Apple has joined forces with the company that most benefits from inhibiting competition and innovation in AI: OpenAI, a monopolist in the market for generative AI chatbots.”", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/spacexai-dropped-its-antitrust-suit-against-apple-the-judge-demands-to-know-why", "canonical_source": "https://gizmodo.com/spacexai-dropped-its-antitrust-suit-against-apple-the-judge-demands-to-know-why-2000812924", "published_at": "2026-09-17 09:30:24+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-17 09:53:05.999398+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["SpaceXAI", "X Corp.", "Apple", "OpenAI", "Mark Pittman", "Elon Musk", "ChatGPT", "App Store"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/spacexai-dropped-its-antitrust-suit-against-apple-the-judge-demands-to-know-why", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/spacexai-dropped-its-antitrust-suit-against-apple-the-judge-demands-to-know-why.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/spacexai-dropped-its-antitrust-suit-against-apple-the-judge-demands-to-know-why.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/spacexai-dropped-its-antitrust-suit-against-apple-the-judge-demands-to-know-why.jsonld"}}