Tech magnates Elon Musk and Sam Altman have exchanged barbs and allegations this week, with Elon Musk hinting at potential legal action against Apple.
Elon Musk Announces Legal Action Against Apple Over App Store Dispute
Elon Musk, the CEO of xAI, has announced plans to take immediate legal action against Apple, accusing the tech giant of antitrust violations related to the App Store’s refusal to feature Musk’s X app and his AI chatbot Grok in its top recommended or "Must Have" app sections.
In a post on X, Musk claimed that Apple is favoring OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the App Store rankings to prevent any AI company besides OpenAI from reaching the top spot. He framed the issue as Apple “playing politics,” with Grok ranked #5 among all apps but excluded from prominent App Store placements.
This event follows a previous warning by Musk to Microsoft about OpenAI. The timeline of events started on August 12, 2025, when Musk publicly posted his criticisms and announced immediate legal action against Apple over alleged anticompetitive conduct in the App Store.
Apple’s actions come amid a broader feud involving Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and the wider AI industry rivalries. Prior to Musk’s announcement, Apple had recently faced antitrust-related rulings and fines in the U.S. and European Union, including a federal judge finding Apple violated a court injunction in an antitrust case by Fortnite’s maker Epic Games and EU fines totalling about $2 billion for anti-competitive App Store practices.
Sam Altman responded critically to Musk’s legal threat against Apple, calling Musk’s claim “remarkable” and referencing allegations that Musk manipulates X to benefit his interests and harm competitors. This underscores the ongoing tension between Musk and Altman, rooted in their joint founding of OpenAI in 2015 and subsequent falling out by 2018, including Musk’s earlier lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI for allegedly betraying OpenAI’s founding mission and becoming a profit-driven venture.
As of the available reports, no specific details about the legal action that xAI plans to take against Apple or Apple’s response have been reported yet. OpenAI’s app remains at No. 1 in the App Store, while other apps, including Perplexity and Deepseek, have reached No. 1 in the past.
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