In a court filing submitted on Monday, OpenAI claims that xAI instructed its employees to use so-called “ephemeral messaging tools” — messaging services that automatically delete communications after a set period of time. According to OpenAI, discussions covering every aspect of xAI’s business were conducted via these tools, even though the company allegedly knew it intended to file a lawsuit and was legally required to preserve documents.

“The destruction of evidence was the entire point,” OpenAI said in the filing, according to Bloomberg, arguing that this conduct places OpenAI and other targets of Musk’s legal actions at an “unfair disadvantage.”

Lawsuit against OpenAI and Apple

The dispute stems from an antitrust lawsuit filed in August 2025 by xAI and Musk’s social media platform X against OpenAI and Apple. The suit alleges that Apple’s decision to integrate ChatGPT into its iOS mobile operating system unfairly restricts competition from other chatbots, including Musk’s own AI assistant, Grok. The plaintiffs are seeking billions of dollars in damages. OpenAI and Apple have denied the allegations, but in November 2025 a judge in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled that the case could proceed.

OpenAI describes Musk’s actions as part of a “campaign of litigation” against the company, rooted in part in the long-running dispute between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Both men co-founded OpenAI in 2015, before Musk left the company’s board in 2018.

In the latest filing, OpenAI’s lawyers state that they requested documents from xAI related to the company’s claims. xAI has argued that an agreement between OpenAI and Apple blocked its entry into the generative AI market. However, OpenAI says xAI has failed to produce “a single non-public document” to support those allegations. According to the filing, no emails, text messages, Signal messages, or XChat messages of any kind were provided.

OpenAI is now asking the court to prohibit employees of X and xAI from using self-deleting messaging services and to appoint a “neutral forensic examiner” to investigate the matter and determine appropriate remedies.