Elon Musk is once again taking aim at Apple — this time alleging that the company’s App Store policies are illegally favoring OpenAI’s ChatGPT over competing AI products like those from his own AI startup, xAI.
“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 said in a Monday evening post on X. “xAI will take immediate legal action.”
The remarks came just hours after Musk criticized Apple for excluding both the X app and Grok, xAI’s AI chatbot that’s integrated into X and Tesla vehicles, from the App Store’s curated “Must Have” section. This, despite X currently ranking #1 on the “Top Free” news apps chart in the U.S., and Grok being the fifth most popular among all free apps in the country.
Apple announced its partnership with OpenAI on June 10, 2024, integrating ChatGPT more deeply into its platforms. Musk has long accused the company of playing favorites with its AI partner.
However, user context added to Musk’s latest post points out that other AI apps have enjoyed time atop the App Store after the OpenAI–Apple deal. DeepSeek, for example, reached #1 overall in January 2025, and Perplexity became the #1 iPhone app in India just last month after a major promotion from Airtel.
Musk’s AI startup, xAI, merged with X earlier this year, with the billionaire saying in May that he would be refocusing on Tesla, xAI, and X after stepping away from a brief White House role. Now, with the threat of legal action, it appears Musk is ready to escalate his long-running battle with Apple over what he sees as an uneven playing field in the AI race.
