OpenAI Prepares Legal Action as Apple Partnership Falls Short

Mark Gurman described the strain in Apple’s partnership with OpenAI as a mismatch between what OpenAI expected from Apple distribution and what Apple delivered inside its software.

Two years ago, Apple and OpenAI announced what Gurman called a “blockbuster” partnership: ChatGPT would be integrated into parts of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac experience as Apple rolled out the new Siri and Apple Intelligence with iOS 18. OpenAI expected that relationship to become a multibillion-dollar annual initiative ahead of an IPO.

The implementation, in Gurman’s account, has been much narrower. ChatGPT appears in Apple features such as Image Playground and writing tools, where users can generate text and images, and Siri can be asked to retrieve results from ChatGPT. But it has not been “baked in” to Apple’s software as deeply as OpenAI had anticipated.

Bloomberg showed Apple shares lower during the breaking-news segment, with an AAPL intraday quote of 297.31, down 1.56, or 0.52%. The market move was presented as part of the immediate reaction to the report that the Apple-OpenAI relationship was fraying.

OpenAI has tried to renegotiate the agreement with Apple executives and believes those talks have stalled, according to Gurman. The company is now preparing possible legal action against Apple in the near future as a way to seek a resolution.

Gurman framed the matter as preparation rather than filed litigation. OpenAI is “hoping for a resolution outside of court,” he said, but has hired an outside law firm to work with its in-house legal team. Bloomberg’s on-screen breaking-news headline stated: “OPENAI WORKS WITH LAW FIRM TO PREPARE ACTIONS AGAINST APPLE.”

Caroline Hyde characterized the prospective claim as an alleged breach-of-contract issue, while noting that it was not yet fully at the legal stage. Gurman said the involvement of outside counsel put the dispute at “a fairly serious stage.”

Gurman kept the immediate dispute focused on OpenAI and Apple, but placed it inside a broader AI market where companies are competing for the same opportunity while also entering uneasy collaborations.

In his description, “a bunch of companies” are fighting for “share of the pie,” while also deciding when to work together and when not to. He said he would be surprised if more litigation and other legal matters did not emerge across the AI industry, beyond this specific dispute.

Hyde compared the moment to the browser era, when browsers were included across platforms and devices. Gurman did not expand on that analogy; his answer stayed with the likelihood of more AI-industry legal conflict.

Mark Gurman said he would not expect a public Apple response, and noted that Apple was not commenting on the dispute. But he also said Apple has its own complaints about OpenAI.

Those concerns, as he listed them, include OpenAI’s privacy practices, its staying power as a company, and its leadership. He added that Apple has been “furious for over a year” because OpenAI has been recruiting from Apple’s hardware engineering ranks for its own AI hardware efforts.

That makes the dispute broader than OpenAI’s dissatisfaction with how ChatGPT has been implemented inside Apple software. OpenAI’s position, as described by Gurman, centers on the value and depth of the integration. Apple’s concerns center on privacy practices, staying power, leadership, and OpenAI’s recruitment of Apple hardware engineers.