By Muhammad Sal
Elon Musk has accused Apple of giving special treatment to OpenAI on its App Store, claiming the iPhone maker’s ranking system unfairly blocks other AI apps, including his own, from reaching the top spot.
Musk, who owns the X social network and the Grok AI chatbot, said Apple’s behaviour is “playing politics” and amounts to an antitrust violation. In a post on Tuesday, he vowed that his AI company, xAI Holdings, would take immediate legal action against Apple.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT app currently holds the No. 1 spot among free iPhone apps in the US, while Musk’s Grok sits at No. 5. This ranking has fueled Musk’s claim that Apple is preventing fair competition in the global app discovery space.
The dispute adds to Musk’s long-standing feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Altman dismissed Musk’s allegations and criticized Musk for allegedly manipulating the X platform for his own advantage. He said OpenAI remains focused on building great products.
At Apple’s 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the company announced a stronger partnership with OpenAI alongside new AI features for its apps and devices. These include live translation in Messages, Phone, and FaceTime, and improved visual intelligence that analyzes images and text on iPhones.
Apple’s deeper involvement with AI and OpenAI comes amid growing pressure to update Siri and stay competitive in the AI race.
This clash marks Musk’s most high-profile confrontation involving AI and Big Tech since his public spat with former US President Donald Trump earlier this year.
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