Elon Musk Threatens Legal Action Against Apple Over Alleged Antitrust Violations in AI App Store Rankings
Tech mogul Elon Musk has threatened Apple with potential legal action over allegations of antitrust violations concerning the rankings of the Grok AI chatbot app, owned by his artificial intelligence startup xAI.
Musk asserted on a social media platform that Apple’s practices are preventing any AI company other than OpenAI from achieving the top spot in the App Store, which he believes constitutes an antitrust violation. He announced immediate legal action would be initiated.
Apple has yet to respond to requests for comment.
In another post, Musk questioned Apple’s motivation for failing to include either X or Grok in their ‘Must-Have’ app section, given that X is the world’s top news app and Grok ranks among the top 5 overall apps.
Last year, Apple partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into various iPhone, iPad, Mac laptop, and desktop products. At that time, Musk warned that if OpenAI were integrated at the operating system level on Apple devices, such devices would be banned from his companies, citing security concerns.
It was confirmed by CNBC that ChatGPT currently holds the top spot in the free apps section of the American iOS store and is the sole AI chatbot featured in Apple’s ‘Must-Have Apps’ section.
Prior to legal threats being issued against Apple, Musk celebrated Grok surpassing Google as the fifth most popular free app on the App Store.
OpenAI announced GPT-5, their latest advanced large-scale AI model, following the release of Grok 4 by xAI last month.
Musk has a long-standing dispute with ChatGPT’s creator, OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015. The billionaire stepped down from its board in 2018, four years after expressing concerns about AI being “potentially more dangerous than nukes.”
Currently, Musk is engaged in a lawsuit against the Microsoft-backed startup and its CEO Sam Altman, claiming they have abandoned OpenAI’s original mission to develop artificial intelligence ‘for the benefit of humanity broadly.’
This is not the first time Apple has faced antitrust accusations. Last year, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly monopolizing the iPhone ecosystem.
In June, a panel of judges rejected Apple’s emergency application to halt changes in their App Store, following a ruling that Apple could no longer charge a commission on payment links within apps or dictate their appearance.