OpenAI Hires Law Firm to Sue Apple Over Failed ChatGPT Partnership
OpenAI is gearing up to sue Apple. According to Bloomberg, the company's lawyers have teamed up with an outside law firm to draft potential legal strategies and may soon send Apple a breach of contract notice over the two-year-old ChatGPT integration deal.
The core of the dispute: OpenAI claims Apple never delivered on its promise of deep integration. When the two companies signed on in June 2024, Apple reportedly compared the deal to its Safari search agreement with Google — a pact that generates tens of billions of dollars annually for both sides. OpenAI expected the ChatGPT integration to drive billions in subscription revenue each year. The reality has fallen far short. One OpenAI executive bluntly called the partnership "a failure," saying Apple didn't make a genuine effort on the product side.
The problem lies in how Apple designed the integration. Users have to explicitly say "ChatGPT" in Siri to trigger OpenAI's service, and responses are confined to a small window — far less information than the standalone ChatGPT app provides. OpenAI's internal user research shows Apple users overwhelmingly prefer opening the ChatGPT app directly rather than invoking it through Siri. OpenAI also believes this half-baked integration is actively damaging its brand.
Making matters worse, Apple is actively reducing its reliance on OpenAI. On the underlying AI model front, Apple signed a separate deal with Google's Gemini team late last year, worth around $1 billion annually. And when iOS 27 launches at WWDC on June 8, Siri will open up to multiple competitors including Claude and Gemini. OpenAI says the open competition isn't itself the trigger for legal action — the problem is that Apple hasn't even fulfilled its original integration commitments.
Another source of friction is hardware. OpenAI last year acquired a device company co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, is developing an iPhone alternative, and has been poaching talent from Apple's hardware team at high salaries — further straining the relationship.
Following the news, Apple's stock dipped 1.2% intraday to $295.38. OpenAI hasn't made a final decision and still hopes for an out-of-court settlement. Legal action is not expected to begin before the Musk case concludes.