Elon Musk has threatened legal action against Apple on behalf of his artificial intelligence startup xAI, accusing the iPhone maker of favoring OpenAI and breaching antitrust regulations in managing the rankings in its App Store. The posts elicited snide responses from Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, and began a 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 #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action,” Musk said in a post on X.
In a post earlier that 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 #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps? Are you playing politics?”
OpenAI’s ChatGPT currently holds the top spot in the App Store’s “Top Free Apps” section in the US, while xAI’s Grok ranks fifth. Apple has a partnership with OpenAI that integrates ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple and xAI did not provide comment.
Altman responded to Musk 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.” Musk has bent X’s algorithmic recommendations to favor his own tweets, according to multiple reports.
Altman and Musk founded OpenAI together in 2015, but Musk left the startup and rescinded funding in 2018 after proposing to take it over, a petition other executives rebuffed. Musk has since sued the company twice over its planned transition to a for-profit enterprise, alleging “deceit of Shakespearean proportions”. Altman has cast Musk as a bitter and petty ex-partner who was jealous of the company’s success after departing.
Musk replied to Altman’s tweet: “You got 3M views on your bullshit post, you liar, far more than I’ve received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!”
Altman replied to Musk multiple times, first calling his lack of views a “skill issue”, then “or bots”, and then offered a legal question of his own: “Will you sign an affidavit that you have never directed changes to the X algorithm in a way that has hurt your competitors or helped your own companies? i will apologize if so.”
Users on X – through the community notes feature – have pointed out that a few apps besides OpenAI have taken the top spot on the App Store this year.
Chinese AI app DeepSeek reached the No 1 spot on the platform in January, while in July, Perplexity took first place in India’s App Store – both occurring after the OpenAI and Apple partnership struck last year.
One user asked X’s native AI, Grok, who was right in the feud. The chatbot replied: “Based on verified evidence, Sam Altman is right.”
Musk’s comments come as regulators and rivals intensify scrutiny of Apple’s control over its App Store.
Earlier this year, Apple was ordered to pay a fine of €500m ($581.15m) by the EU antitrust enforcer, which said the company’s restrictions prevented developers from steering users outside the App Store.
The US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in early 2024, accusing the iPhone maker of creating and maintaining “broad, sustained, and illegal” smartphone monopoly.
