Elon Musk has threatened legal action against Apple, claiming that the company is violating antitrust rules by favoring OpenAI's ChatGPT in App Store rankings over his Grok AI assistant.
"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 (Twitter), which he also owns.
Musk failed to provide evidence to support his claim. Meanwhile, fellow X users noted that DeepSeek reached #1 overall on the App Store in January, long after Apple's partnership with OpenAI was announced that allows Siri to offload complex queries to ChatGPT.
The tech billionaire also criticized Apple for not featuring X or Grok in the App Store's "Must Have" section. ChatGPT currently holds the top spot for free apps, while Grok ranks sixth. Google's Gemini chatbot sits at 57th.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hit back with his own post on X, calling Musk's claims "remarkable" given allegations about Musk manipulating his own social media platform to benefit his companies.
Musk's remarks come amid growing pressure on Apple from regulators and competitors over its App Store practices. In April, a U.S. judge ruled that Apple violated a court order to open the App Store to more competition and referred the company for a criminal contempt probe, following a case brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games.
The same month, the EU fined Apple €500 million ($587 million) for violating the Digital Markets Act, citing restrictions that blocked developers from directing users to cheaper offers outside the App Store. Apple is currently appealing the fine.
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