Billionaire Elon Musk announced on Monday that his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, intends to take legal action against Apple. He accuses the tech giant of violating antitrust regulations by manipulating App Store rankings. Musk expressed his concerns in a post on his social media platform, X, 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.”
Despite these serious allegations, Musk did not provide any supporting evidence. As of now, neither Apple, OpenAI, nor xAI has responded to requests for comment from Reuters. Currently, ChatGPT holds the top position in the App Store’s “Top Free Apps” section for iPhones in the U.S., while xAI’s Grok is ranked fifth, with Google’s Gemini chatbot far behind at 57th. Additionally, ChatGPT leads on the Google Play Store, according to data from Sensor Tower.
Apple has a partnership with OpenAI that facilitates the integration of ChatGPT across its devices-iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Musk further questioned Apple in an earlier post, asking why neither X nor Grok is featured in the App Store’s ‘Must Have’ section, especially when X is the world’s leading news app and Grok is number five among all applications. He speculated, “Are you playing politics?”
His comments come amidst escalating scrutiny from regulators and competitors regarding Apple’s control over its App Store. In April, a U.S. judge ruled that Apple had breached a court order that mandated increased competition within its App Store, subsequently referring the company to federal prosecutors for a criminal contempt investigation. This legal action was initiated by Epic Games, the creator of ‘Fortnite.’
Earlier in April, Apple was fined 500 million euros (approximately $587 million) by the EU antitrust authority. The fine was related to Apple’s practices, which were said to inhibit developers from directing users to better deals outside the App Store, thus violating the Digital Markets Act.
Original Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/musk-says-xai-to-take-legal-action-against-apple-over-app-store-rankings-10184022/
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Publish Date: 2025-08-12 10:44:00
