Elon Musk Threatens Legal Action Against Apple for Alleged Favoritism to OpenAI App Over xAI on App Store

New Delhi, August 12: Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk on Tuesday threatened legal action against tech giant Apple, alleging that the company is unjustly favouring the OpenAI application in its App Store.

Musk's own AI startup, xAI, was not able to claim the number one spot on the App Store due to this favouritism, he alleged. Musk wrote on X, "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." "Unfortunately, what choice do we have? Apple didn’t just put their thumb on the scale, they put their whole body!" he said in an another post. Elon Musk Accuses Apple of Keeping X and Grok out of App Store’s ‘Must Have’ Section, Alleging Bias Toward OpenAI; Says ‘xAI Will Take Immediate Legal Action’.

Elon Musk Questions Apple App Store’s Exclusion of X and Grok From ‘Must Have’ Section

Hey @Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either 𝕏 or Grok in your “Must Have” section when 𝕏 is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps?

Are you playing politics? What gives? Inquiring minds want to know. https://t.co/3wenLZGtwG

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2025

Elon Musk Says ‘Unfortunately, What Choice Do We Have?’

Unfortunately, what choice do we have?

Apple didn’t just put their thumb on the scale, they put their whole body! https://t.co/NM7gaLwvyG

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2025

The accusation came as competition intensified between Grok, xAI’s large language model, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. xAI launched Grok 4 last month and claimed notable performance improvements over competitors. The AI firm has since added features like Grok Imagine for image and video generation and personalised companion chatbots. Grok rose from the 60th rank to second place in Apple's Productivity category. The free tier allows only a limited number of queries per day, after which it requires a subscription.

ChatGPT has consistently been ranked in first or second position in Apple’s overall charts for much of the past year. Musk had alleged that Apple’s support for ChatGPT is not driven by organic popularity. Apple has highlighted ChatGPT in App Store editorial content and incorporated OpenAI’s technology into its Apple Intelligence rollout, integrating it directly into Siri and writing tools. ‘Unfortunately, What Choice Do We Have?’: Elon Musk Speaks After Suing Apple Over Favouring OpenAI Over xAI’s Grok App.

Last week, on the eve of GPT-5’s launch, ChatGPT maker OpenAI announced massive bonus payouts for about 1,000 employees, which is approximately one-third of its full-time workforce. GPT‑5 is available to all users, with Plus subscribers getting more usage and Pro subscribers getting access to GPT‑5 Pro, a version with extended reasoning for even more comprehensive and accurate answers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 12, 2025 12:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).