Elon Musk has said he plans to take “immediate legal action” against Apple after accusing the tech giant of favouring OpenAI’s ChatGPT over his own artificial intelligence startup xAI.
The SpaceX, Tesla and X boss claimed that the iPhone maker is violating antitrust rules through its App Store following a deal with OpenAI.
“Hey @Apple App Store, 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?” he wrote in a post to X on Monday. “Are you playing politics? What gives? Inquiring minds want to know.”
In a follow-up post he wrote: “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,” he wrote in a post to X. “xAI will take immediate legal action.”
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2025
xAI will take immediate legal action.
OpenAI boss Sam Altman responded with his own post to X, stating: “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.”
ChatGPT is currently ranked top of the App Store’s ‘Top free apps’ in the US, according to Sensor Tower data, while also topping the Google Play Store charts. xAI’s Grok ranks fifth on Apple’s app charts.
The Independent has reached out to Apple and X for comment.
Apple has previously faced allegations of antitrust violations, with a judge in Australia ruling today that the tech firm had abused its control over app distribution and in-app payments in case brought about by Fortnite maker Epic Games.
“Victory in the Australian antitrust proceedings of Epic v Apple and Epic v Google,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said following Tuesday’s ruling. “Fortnite will return to the Land Down Under through Epic Games Store at a date to be determined.”
In April, European regulators fined Apple €500 million (£431m) for breaking competition rules, which followed a €1.8 billion fine from the EU in 2024 for abusing its dominant position for the distribution of music streaming apps.
