Musk must disclose emails in Apple's procedure Apfelpatient

In the legal battle between Elon Musk's xAI and Apple, Musk must now also disclose his business emails from Tesla and SpaceX. A federal judge rejected XAI's attempt to exclude these accounts from the evidence, thus upholding an earlier ruling.

The dispute revolves around the allegation that Apple and OpenAI colluded to the detriment of Musk's chatbot Grok. As the evidence is gathered, the focus is now shifting to Musk's email inboxes: US District Judge Mark Pittman rejected an objection from X and xAI and confirmed that Musk's Tesla and SpaceX emails must be searched for relevant material. The legal battle had already moved closer to Apple's top management the previous month when the court included Craig Federighi in the lawsuit but excluded Tim Cook.

What the lawsuit is about

The starting point of the proceedings is Musk's displeasure with Grok's ranking in the App Store. He attributes the results to an anti-competitive agreement between Apple and OpenAI – based on their partnership, through which ChatGPT powers parts of Siri and Apple Intelligence. Apple itself is increasingly moving away from committing to a single partner and making the AI integration of Siri a matter of choice – a point that counters the accusation of targeted favoritism.

In May, the legal teams of Apple, OpenAI, X, and xAI met before Magistrate Judge Hal R. Ray, Jr., for a hearing to resolve several points of contention regarding the taking of evidence. The court granted X and xAI's request to designate Craig Federighi as a custodian - that is, as the person whose documents would be searched. Apple was also ordered to disclose documents related to its recent agreement with Google, under which Gemini will power the new Siri.

Why Tesla and SpaceX accounts came under scrutiny

In the same hearing, Judge Ray sided with OpenAI's argument that Musk's Tesla and SpaceX emails should also be searched for relevant material. Lawyers for X and xAI had initially argued that these documents were beyond their control, as they represented neither SpaceX nor Tesla. This argument did not convince the judge.

The deciding factor was OpenAI's assertion that Musk was "the CEO of all these companies" and demonstrably used the accounts for business purposes on behalf of all of them. This was supported by internal documents showing that even Musk's xAI CFO contacted him at his SpaceX email address regarding xAI matters.

Pittman confirms the order

Days earlier, the legal teams for X and xAI had filed an appeal to overturn Ray's decision and simultaneously requested that the order be stayed pending the resolution of the appeal. Judge Pittman, who had previously referred the evidentiary disputes to Ray—a common procedure in federal trials—denied both requests and upheld Ray's ruling.

In his order, Pittman stated that the emails had to be disclosed because there was reason to believe that Musk was conducting business for X or xAI through his SpaceX and Tesla accounts. Musk's ownership and his top positions in these companies led the court to this conclusion. The fact that xAI's CFO had sent financial reports to Musk's SpaceX address was sufficient – whether these were personal or business accounts was irrelevant.

No deadline yet for release

Pittman did not set a specific deadline for the release of the emails. At the hearing in mid-May, Ray had asked X and xAI's lawyers how long the release would take. The answer was vague: they could not give an exact timeframe but would proceed as quickly as possible if ordered to do so. This leaves open the question of when the requested material will actually be admitted as evidence. (Image: Shutterstock / Who is Danny)