Elon Musk threatens to sue Apple over antitrust violations, claims favoritism towards OpenAI 

Elon Musk, billionaire and founder of xAI, sued tech giant Apple for allegedly showing bias towards OpenAI in its App Store rankings. The billionaire accused Apple of violating antitrust regulations in its management of the App Store rankings. However, he did not present any evidence to support his claim. xAI is the parent company of Grok, one of the widely used AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.    

As reported by Reuters, Elon Musk wrote in an X post that Apple is behaving in a way that “makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI” to rank first in the App Store. He calls it “an unequivocal antitrust violation” and “xAI will take immediate legal action”.

What’s App Store ranking, and why did Elon Musk sue Apple?

App Store ranking refers to the order of apps supported by Apple (in this context), which is determined based on the number of downloads, user ratings, user reviews, and other complex algorithms. The higher-ranked apps have more visibility, and Elon Musk points out this aspect, claiming that Apple is allegedly violating the antitrust rule, unfairly favoring OpenAI and hindering Grok from. However, there is no lawsuit filed at press time.    

Another significant post from Musk questioned the App Store, asking why it refuses to put either X or Grok in its “Must Have” section. He also highlighted that the X is the first news app in the world, and Grok is fifth among all apps.

 In late July 2025, Elon Musk celebrated the moment when Grok overtook Google, becoming the fifth-most downloaded free app in the US App Store.