Grok not number 1 in the App Store: Musk threatens Apple with a lawsuit

Elon Musk has threatened Apple with "immediate legal action" through his AI company xAI. Apple makes it impossible for AI companies apart from OpenAI or ChatGPT to reach number 1 in the app store charts, Musk claimed in a post on his X platform. This would be a "clear violation of antitrust law".

As is so often the case, X users added context to Musk's post and pointed out that other AI apps such as DeepSeek have also been able to reach the top of the app charts in recent months.

Musk apparently wants to be on Apple's recommended list

According to another post, Musk is bothered by the fact that neither Grok nor X appear in the App Store's "must have" recommendations, even though both apps have high chart rankings and therefore many downloads on iPhones. "Are you playing political games? What's going on?" Musk asked. A concrete lawsuit by xAI against Apple had not been filed by Tuesday afternoon.

In the past, Musk has already repeatedly criticized Apple and the company's app store rules – as well as OpenAI. Musk was a co-founder of the ChatGPT company and has since taken legal action against OpenAI several times for alleged breach of contract. Musk has not yet filed a lawsuit against Apple; in the last public dispute, a personal conversation with Apple CEO Tim Cook smoothed the waters.

OpenAI so far Apple's only AI partner

Last summer, Apple entered into a partnership with OpenAI to integrate an interface to ChatGPT into iOS and other operating systems. Apple Intelligence and Siri users can use it to access the chatbot in the cloud if Apple's AI models fail to provide an answer. According to reports, no money will flow for the iPhone integration - neither from Apple to OpenAI nor vice versa. Many months ago, Apple held out the prospect of integrating other AI models such as Google Gemini as an extension to Apple Intelligence. This has not yet happened.

(lbe)