Elon Musk has threatened to sue Apple on behalf of his artificial intelligence start-up, xAI, accusing the iPhone maker of favouring OpenAI and breaching antitrust regulations in the way it manages rankings in its App Store. The remarks prompted a barbed response from Sam Altman, the OpenAI chief executive, sparking a public spat between the two former business partners on X.
“Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach number one in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action,” Musk posted on X.
Musk earlier written post to Apple
Earlier the same day, he wrote: “Hey @Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the number one news app in the world and Grok is number five among all apps? Are you playing politics?”
OpenAI’s ChatGPT currently tops the “Top Free Apps” chart in the United States, while xAI’s Grok ranks fifth. Apple has a partnership with OpenAI that integrates ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads and Macs. Both Apple and xAI declined to comment.
Altman replied on X: “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.” Reports have previously suggested Musk has tweaked X’s algorithm to boost his own posts.
The pair co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but Musk left in 2018 after a failed bid to take over the organisation. He has since sued the company twice over its shift towards a for-profit model, accusing it of “deceit of Shakespearean proportions”. Altman has painted Musk as a jealous ex-partner bitter about OpenAI’s success since his departure.
Community notes on X have pointed out that other AI apps have claimed the top App Store spot this year. Chinese AI app DeepSeek reached number one in January, while Perplexity took first place in India’s App Store in July, both after Apple’s deal with OpenAI.
Musk’s accusations come amid growing regulatory scrutiny of Apple’s App Store practices. Earlier this year, the European Union fined Apple €500m (£422m) for restricting developers from steering users outside the App Store. In the United States, the Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing Apple of maintaining a “broad, sustained, and illegal” smartphone monopoly.
