OpenAI recently released an iPhone app for ChatGPT, a popular AI-powered chat program. The app quickly became very popular and reached the top of the charts in the App Store.

Users can subscribe to a premium version called ChatGPT Plus, which offers faster responses and priority access to new features for a monthly fee of $20. Apple takes a 30% cut of the subscription revenue because OpenAI uses Apple’s in-app purchasing system.

Despite Apple not being a leader in AI, its dominance in the app market allows it to profit from the success of others. If ChatGPT Plus were to gain 5 million new subscribers on iOS, OpenAI would earn around $1.2 billion annually, with Apple collecting $360 million of that.

Apple has been criticized for its monopoly-like control over the app market, even though it has contributed little to AI research. While Apple has expressed caution about privacy concerns related to ChatGPT, it continues to offer the service and benefit financially from it. Apple’s services business, including App Store revenue, has been a significant source of growth for the company.

Apple recently won an antitrust case filed by Epic Games, which accused Apple of unfair practices. The ruling did not force Apple to open its devices to third-party app stores, but it may soon support third-party app stores in the European Union. Despite the ruling, Apple can still earn a substantial amount of money from OpenAI while emphasizing privacy concerns and using the profits to develop its own AI models.