Elon Musk threatens Apple with legal action, reignites OpenAI feud over alleged antitrust violations
Elon Musk has threatened Apple with a lawsuit, sparking a heated exchange with OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Musk accused the App Store of violating antitrust laws by showing favoritism towards ChatGPT over his Grok chatbot.
“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,” Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X on Monday.
He pointed out that his Grok AI chatbot is excluded from the App Store’s “Must Have” list even when it ranks #1 in news and #5 overall, questioning if Apple is playing politics.
Apple did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
In response to Musk’s accusations, Altman wrote in a post: “This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”
The exchange quickly turned into a dispute over follower counts.
“You got 3M views on your bulls— post, you liar, far more than I’ve received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!” Musk wrote late on Monday.
Altman suggested that a “skill issue” or “bots” could be the reason for Musk receiving fewer views on some of his posts.
Musk posted about an hour later: “Scam Altman lies as easily as he breathes.”
Last year, Apple partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its devices, which Musk strongly opposed.
The ongoing feud between Musk and OpenAI escalated with legal action and accusations of betrayal.
Musk’s legal threats come as Apple faces a lawsuit over its alleged monopoly over smartphones and recent changes to its App Store commission fees.
Both xAI and OpenAI have not yet responded to The Post’s requests for comment.
