Elon Musk accuses Apple of unfairly favouring OpenAI on iPhone

The billionaire founder of xAI Holdings said Apple makes it impossible for anyone other than OpenAI to reach the top of the App Store charts

Elon Musk said xAI will take legal action against what he deemed an antitrust violation. File photo: AP/Michel Euler

Elon Musk lashed out against Apple’s app store practices late on Monday, accusing the iPhone maker of favouring OpenAI.

The billionaire founder of xAI Holdings, which now houses the Grok artificial intelligence team and X social network, said Apple makes it impossible for anyone other than OpenAI to reach the top of the App Store charts, a sought-after global spotlight for app developers. 

In a pinned post on his X account, Musk asked if Apple is “playing politics” by not highlighting his products.

His comments mark the biggest fight that Musk has picked since his confrontation with US President Donald Trump in June, when each man posted disparaging remarks about the other on his own social network. 

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk added that xAI will take legal action against what he deemed an antitrust violation. 

Apple and OpenAI — whose ChatGPT is the most-downloaded free iPhone app in the US, ahead of Grok at No. 5 — have a partnership around AI built into the latest iPhones. 

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Musk, 54, has a long-running feud with OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, which dates back to disagreements that led to their split after the two founded OpenAI together.

Altman, responded to the claims of impropriety by turning the focus to how Musk manages the X network, suggesting he manipulates it to serve his personal interests. 

“But OpenAI will just stay focused on making great products,” Altman added in his post on X. Asked for comment, an OpenAI representative pointed to Altman’s post.

Bloomberg