Elon Musk threatens Apple with legal action, reignites OpenAI feud over alleged antitrust violations
Elon Musk threatened Apple with a lawsuit – and launched a testy back-and-forth on X with OpenAI’s Sam Altman as he accused the App Store of violating antitrust laws by unfairly favoring ChatGPT over Musk’s Grok chatbot.
“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,” Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X Monday.
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He added that X and his Grok AI chatbot are excluded from the App Store’s “Must Have” list when the apps rank as #1 in news and #5 overall, respectively – asking if Apple is “playing politics.”
Apple did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
In response to Musk’s accusations, Altman wrote in a post: “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.”
The war of words quickly devolved into mudslinging over follower counts.
“You got 3M views on your bulls— post, you liar, far more than I’ve received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!” Musk wrote late on Monday.
Altman said a “skill issue” or “bots” were to blame for Musk receiving fewer views on some of his posts.
“Will you sign an affidavit that you have never directed changes to the X algorithm in a way that has hurt your competitors or helped your own companies?” Altman pressed, adding that he would “apologize if so.”
Musk posted about an hour later: “Scam Altman lies as easily as he breathes.”
Last year, Apple partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its iPhone, iPad, Mac laptop and desktop products.
At the time, Musk warned that “if Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation.”
It’s just the latest in a yearslong feud between Musk and OpenAI, which the billionaire parted ways with in 2018 after co-founding the AI firm in 2015.
In February 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, accusing them of betraying the firm’s nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft.
He withdrew the suit in June but refiled it two months later.
Prior to the verbal sparring session, Musk had cheered Grok’s performance on the App Store – rising past Google as the fifth top free app.
xAI released its latest chatbot version, Grok 4, last month, while OpenAI unveiled GPT-5 on Thursday.
Musk’s legal threats come soon after Robert Keele, who led the legal department at xAI, announced he left the company to spend time with his family – though he added there was “daylight between our worldviews” with Musk.
OpenAI and xAI did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Apple is currently facing a landmark lawsuit from the Department of Justice that alleges the company maintains an illegal monopoly over smartphones.
And in June, Apple lost a plea to halt changes to its App Store from a ruling that the company could no longer charge a commission on payment links inside its apps.
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