Elon Musk accuses Apple of favouring OpenAI in App Store, threatens to sue

In a dramatic turn in the tech industry, Elon Musk, CEO of xAI, has leveled serious accusations against Apple, claiming the tech giant is giving preferential treatment to OpenAI, his main competitor. Musk's comments came on Monday, as he asserted that Apple's practices prevent any artificial intelligence application other than OpenAI's ChatGPT from achieving the top ranking in the App Store, which he describes as a clear violation of antitrust laws. Musk expressed his frustrations on social media, stating, "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." He further emphasized his point by saying, "Unfortunately, what choice do we have? Apple didn’t just put their thumb on the scale, they put their whole body!" Adding fuel to the fire, Musk reacted positively to a comment suggesting that Apple exhibits bias, especially since the company employs ChatGPT to enhance features within its iOS operating system. Notably, ChatGPT assists Siri by handling more complex queries and also supports Apple's writing tools and visual intelligence features introduced at last year's WWDC. Musk's relationship with OpenAI has been tumultuous over the years, evolving from co-founder to a fierce rival. He has previously filed lawsuits against OpenAI and its primary investor, Microsoft, alleging breaches of contract. Musk claims that OpenAI was initially established to create artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the greater good, but has since shifted towards a profit-driven model. Just last week, following the launch of OpenAI's GPT-5, Musk cautioned Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the potential threat posed by OpenAI, declaring that the company would 'eat Microsoft alive.' Meanwhile, Musk is intensifying his efforts to promote his own Grok AI chatbot, recently making its photo and video generation features free, along with access to the new Grok 4 models.