Key Points X and xAI's lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI must remain in Fort Worth, Texas, a federal judge ruled. Judge Mark Pittman encouraged the tech companies to move their headquarters to Fort Worth, sarcastically noting that the case has "at best minimal connections" to the area. X and xAI, which Elon Musk owns, sued Apple and OpenAI in August, accusing them of an "anticompetitive scheme" to maintain monopolies in artificial intelligence markets. Thomas Fuller | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images A judge ordered that X and xAI's lawsuit accusing Apple and OpenAI of trying to maintain monopolies in artificial intelligence markets must remain in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, despite "at best minimal connections" to that geographic area by any of the companies. Judge Mark Pittman, in a sharply ironic four-page order on Thursday, encouraged the companies to relocate their headquarters to Fort Worth, given their preference for the antitrust lawsuit to be heard there. In a footnote, he even flagged the companies to the website of the Business Services unit of the City of Fort Worth "to get the process started" of relocating there. Pittman's order implicitly aims at the tendency of some plaintiffs of a conservative bent to file lawsuits in the Fort Worth division of the U.S. Northern District of Texas courts to increase their chances of winning favorable rulings from the two active judges there, both of whom were appointed by Republicans. Those plaintiffs have included X and Tesla , both controlled by mega-billionaire Elon Musk, who, until earlier this year, was a top advisor to President Donald Trump. Pittman was appointed by Trump, but has been critical of the practice of targeting lawsuits to specific judicial districts, known as forum-shopping. In his order on Thursday, Pittman said that the Fort Worth division's docket is two to three times busier than the docket of the Dallas division, which has more judges. Pittman's order noted that neither Apple nor OpenAI has a strong connection to Fort Worth, other than several Apple stores. "And, of course, under that logic, there is not a district and division in the entire United States that would not be an appropriate venue for this lawsuit," Pittman wrote. X Corp. is headquartered in Bastrop, Texas — roughly 200 miles south of Fort Worth — while both Apple and OpenAI are headquartered in California. Musk's xAI acquired his social media company X in March in an all-stock transaction. "Given the present desire to have venue in Fort Worth, the numerous high-stakes lawsuits previously adjudicated in the Fort Worth Division, and the vitality of Fort Worth, the Court highly encourages the Parties to consider moving their headquarters to Fort Worth," the judge wrote. "Fort Worth has much more going for it than just the unique artwork on the fourth floor of its historic federal courthouse," Pittman said. The judge had asked the three companies to explain why the case belonged in the Fort Worth court. But neither Apple nor OpenAI requested that the case be moved before the judge's Oct. 9 deadline, Pittman noted in the order. Read more CNBC politics coverage