Judge orders Musk to explain Apple lawsuit dismissal

A federal judge has ordered Elon Musk to explain his request to dismiss his lawsuit against Apple, after Musk filed to drop the case on September 14, 2026, without clarifying the reasons. The order requires Musk's companies to respond by noon on September 17. OpenAI filed an emergency motion demanding an explanation, which the court accepted, leading Judge Mark Pittman to compel Musk to produce any settlement agreements made with Apple. Apple may also file a response by the same deadline but is not required to do so. Musk's original suit claimed Apple rigged App Store charts to favor OpenAI's ChatGPT over X's Grok, a case widely seen as baseless. OpenAI seeks to avoid facing two simultaneous legal battles, including a separate, more serious trade secret theft accusation from Apple.