Elon Musk has charged Apple Inc. with favoring OpenAI over other companies in its App Store. According to the proprietor of the Grok AI chatbot and the X social network, the iPhone manufacturer’s ranking system makes it “impossible” for other developers; including his own AI company, xAI Holdings, to get to the top.
His brief altercation with U.S. President Donald Trump in June was followed by his conflict with Apple and OpenAI. Musk said that Apple’s actions amount to “playing politics” in a post on the social media platform X on Tuesday.
Musk posted, “Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action”
His comments coincide with increased scrutiny of Big Tech’s dominance in the app store and its impact on app discovery worldwide. OpenAI’s ChatGPT app is currently ranked No. 1 among free iPhone apps in the U.S. App Store, while Grok is ranked No. 5.
Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have a long-running feud that started when the two co-founded the company but split over strategic disagreements
Altman rejected Musk’s claims, pointing to Musk’s management of X, implying that he manipulates the platform for his own benefit. “OpenAI will just stay focused on making great products,” Altman wrote.
In a direct response to Muk’s post, Altman wrote, “This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”
At its 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, Apple announced that it was expanding its partnership with OpenAI and introducing new AI features.
