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The partnership that brought ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence is fracturing. Bloomberg reported May 14 that the Apple-OpenAI relationship has deteriorated to the point where OpenAI is exploring legal options against Apple. Reuters corroborated the same day.

How the Partnership Unraveled

The original deal, announced at WWDC 2024, integrated ChatGPT into Siri to handle queries the on-device model couldn’t answer. OpenAI gained distribution across hundreds of millions of Apple devices. Apple got AI capability without building foundation models internally.

The arrangement was already unstable. Apple simultaneously pursued Google, ultimately striking a deal worth approximately $1 billion annually for Gemini to power a rebuilt Siri, launching in 2026. The redesigned Siri, confirmed as part of iOS 27, runs on a Gemini foundation — not ChatGPT. That displaced ChatGPT from the position the original partnership was designed to protect.

The Hardware Conflict

The rupture was compounded by OpenAI’s strategic direction. In 2025, OpenAI acquired io Products — a hardware startup co-founded by Jony Ive, who designed the iPhone, iMac, and AirPods during his tenure at Apple — for $6.5 billion. The acquisition brought former Apple VP of Product Design Tang Yew Tan into OpenAI as Chief Hardware Officer.

OpenAI is now building a consumer AI device that will compete directly on the hardware layer Apple owns. Deploying ChatGPT as a Siri backend while building a competing AI-native device creates a structural conflict Apple’s team was not willing to manage permanently.

Separately, a federal court in April issued a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, Altman, and Ive in a trade secret lawsuit from startup iyO, which alleges its proprietary designs were appropriated before the io Products acquisition. That case is ongoing.

Stakes

ChatGPT’s mobile distribution has depended heavily on iOS. OpenAI reported over one billion mobile users by early 2026, with iPhone users representing a substantial share of that base. Losing preferred placement in Siri, and potentially facing App Store distribution restrictions if legal actions escalate, would remove one of ChatGPT’s most effective consumer growth channels at a time when OpenAI is preparing for its IPO.

For Apple, the risk runs in the other direction: the iOS 27 Siri rebuild is a high-stakes bet that Gemini can match or exceed what the OpenAI integration was supposed to deliver. Apple is also an Anthropic investor. Spreading AI dependency across multiple providers is deliberate.

What OpenAI is specifically alleging against Apple and what legal theory it intends to pursue have not been disclosed. A fight would likely center on terms of the original Apple Intelligence integration agreement.