New York, Aug 12: Elon Musk has accused Apple of unfairly favouring rival OpenAI in its App Store rankings and threatened legal action against the iPhone maker over alleged antitrust violations. On Monday, the billionaire said his artificial intelligence company xAI would take “immediate legal action” against Apple, claiming the tech giant’s policies prevent any AI app other than OpenAI’s ChatGPT from reaching the top position in the store. “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,” Musk wrote on X, his social media platform.Musk did not provide evidence to support the allegation, and neither Apple, OpenAI nor xAI responded to media requests for comment.
According to Sensor Tower data (via Reuters), ChatGPT currently leads the Top Free Apps chart for iPhones in the US, while xAI’s Grok sits in fifth place and Google’s Gemini chatbot ranks 57th. We have also confirmed that ChatGPT is the only AI chatbot featured in Apple’s “Must-Have Apps” section.
Apple has a partnership with OpenAI, integrating ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads and Macs. Musk criticised the company for not including his apps in its recommendations, writing: “Why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps? Are you playing politics?”
The remarks add to Musk’s long-running feud with OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 before leaving its board in 2018. He is currently suing the Microsoft-backed firm and CEO Sam Altman, alleging they abandoned their mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity.
Grok’s rise to fifth place on the App Store comes shortly after OpenAI announced GPT-5, its latest large-scale AI model, and a month after xAI launched Grok 4.
Apple’s App Store practices are already under intense scrutiny. In April, a US judge ruled the company had violated a court order to allow greater competition in its marketplace and referred the matter to federal prosecutors for possible criminal contempt charges, in a case brought by Fortnite developer Epic Games. The European Union also fined Apple 500 million earlier this year for breaching the Digital Markets Act by restricting app developers from directing users to cheaper options outside the App Store.
In the US, the Department of Justice has sued Apple for allegedly operating a monopoly over the iPhone ecosystem. A panel of judges in June refused Apple’s request to delay changes to its App Store rules, which include prohibiting commission fees on in-app payment links and restrictions on how developers display them.
