Sam Altman hits Elon Musk with manipulation claim amid Apple App Store row

In a striking exchange, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has taken a bold stance against Elon Musk after the Tesla and xAI founder accused Apple of giving preferential treatment to OpenAI in its App Store rankings. This public disagreement marks yet another episode in the ongoing rivalry between these two influential figures in the tech industry. The conflict ignited when Musk took to X, claiming that Apple was creating barriers that prevent any AI company except OpenAI from achieving the top spot in the App Store. He labeled this behavior as an "unequivocal antitrust violation" and announced that xAI would pursue immediate legal action. This outburst appears to stem from the fact that OpenAI’s ChatGPT currently occupies the top position on the App Store's list of free apps in the United States, while Musk’s own chatbot, Grok, sits at fifth place. Meanwhile, Google's Gemini trails far behind at 57th. In response to Musk's accusations, Altman directly addressed the claims on social media, suggesting that Musk himself may be manipulating the algorithms on X to favor his own interests and undermine his competitors. He remarked, "This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like." Altman backed his allegations by sharing a news article that suggested Musk had altered X’s algorithm to prioritize his own posts. Apple, which has partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its devices, has remained silent regarding Musk’s accusations and the potential legal threats. This confrontation highlights the increasingly strained relationship between the two tech giants. Notably, Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI but departed the organization in 2018, eventually launching xAI to compete directly with his former company. Since then, he has frequently criticized OpenAI’s trajectory, prompting Altman to occasionally respond, making this latest conflict a significant moment in their ongoing rivalry.