Elon Musk Accuses Apple of Antitrust Violations Over App Store Rankings
Elon Musk has accused Apple of favoring OpenAI in the App Store rankings, calling it an unequivocal antitrust violation. In a post on X, Musk claimed that Apple has made it impossible for other AI companies to reach the top spot in the rankings and announced that his company, xAI, will take immediate legal action. However, Musk did not provide specific evidence to support his claim.
In an earlier post, Musk tagged Apple, questioning why the company refuses to feature either X or Grok in its Must Have section. He argued that X is the number one news app globally, while Grok ranks fifth among all apps. Musk insinuated that Apple might be playing politics, asking, What gives?
Apple responded to the allegations, denying any wrongdoing. The company stated that the App Store is designed to be fair and free of bias. A spokesperson explained that Apple features thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations, and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria. The goal, according to Apple, is to ensure safe discovery for users and valuable opportunities for developers.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also weighed in, calling Musk’s accusation a remarkable claim. Altman referenced past allegations that Musk manipulates X to benefit his own companies and harm competitors. Notably, earlier this year, Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek briefly overtook ChatGPT as the top free app on the App Store, suggesting that rankings can fluctuate.
While Musk did not mention it, Apple has a partnership with OpenAI. The company has integrated ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence to handle cloud-based queries, and it recently announced plans to incorporate OpenAI’s GPT-5 into iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe 26, set to launch in September.
The dispute highlights ongoing tensions between tech giants over competition and fairness in app distribution. Musk’s threat of legal action could escalate the situation, though it remains unclear whether his claims will hold up in court.
