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UPDATE 8/25: Elon Musk's xAI officially filed suit against OpenAI and Apple today, arguing that the companies are "monopolists" working "to ensure their continued dominance" amid the rapid growth of AI and denying xAI the ability to grow its business.
Apple is leaning on OpenAI via an Apple Intelligence integration "to protect its monopoly in smartphones," xAI argues. The suit points to May comments from Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of services, who said during Google's search-related antitrust case that, "You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now, as crazy as it sounds," in part due to AI.
Apple is prioritizing OpenAI in its App Store and "deprioritizing the apps of competing generative AI chatbots and super apps in its App Store rankings, and it has dragged out its App Store app review processes," the lawsuit says. (The suit defines "super apps" as platforms that don't tie users to a particular device, a longtime goal of Musk's.)
Apple execs said last year that the company is open to adding access to other rival AIs, including Gemini, which might happen this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai says. The lawsuit focuses on the fact that Gemini was not an option when Apple Intelligence launched, adding, "xAI has asked Apple to integrate Grok with iOS, but Grok has not been allowed to do so."
For now, Grok and Gemini are available as standalone iOS apps. However, the suit alleges that X's apps receive less promotion in the App Store—including Apple's curated "Must Have" app lists—than ChatGPT because of Apple's deal with OpenAI. Apple denies any favoritism.
The lawsuit argues that Apple's huge iPhone user base means more people will use ChatGPT over Grok, giving OpenAI an edge when it comes to "prompt volume."
"More prompts result in more responses, giving the AI model more training data," the lawsuit says. "Because generative AI chatbots continually improve their algorithms as they receive additional user prompts, additional prompts improve a generative AI chatbot’s model."
"If not for [Apple and OpenAI's] conduct, [xAI's] apps would be more widely used, generating more revenue for [xAI] and accelerating their innovation," the suit says.
Original Story 8/13:
Apple is denying that it favors OpenAI in its App Store over other AI rivals.
"We feature thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations, and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria," an Apple spokesperson tells the BBC, adding that the App Store is designed to be unbiased.
The statement comes after Elon Musk tweeted that "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." He said his AI startup, xAI, "will take immediate legal action." (It’s unclear if xAI has taken any legal action yet.)
Musk then reposted various claims from other X users that Apple’s deal with OpenAI is the reason the company is prioritizing ChatGPT across its App Store.
He also claimed Apple is prioritizing OpenAI in its editorially controlled content. "Hey @Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either 𝕏 or Grok in your 'Must Have' section when 𝕏 is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps?” he wrote. He followed it up by asking directly, “Why is ChatGPT literally in every list where you have editorial control?”
His original tweet has since received the Community Notes treatment, with X users noting that China's DeepSeek topped the App Store in January, while Perplexity did the same in India's app store last month. "Both of these occurred after the OpenAI-Apple partnership [was] announced on June 10, 2024," the community note adds.
As of Aug. 13, Apple's top free iPhone apps in the US show ChatGPT in the top spot with Grok in position six. The next AI service is Google Gemini at 45, followed by Microsoft 365 Copilot at 82.
The debate has since devolved into an internet fight between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who stepped into the debate by tweeting: "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.”
Altman points to claims of Musk tweaking X’s algorithm in 2023. He cited a report from Platformer that says Musk asked the brand to show his tweets more regularly after President Biden’s post about that year’s Super Bowl did better than his.
Musk responded with: "You got 3M views on your bullshit post, you liar, far more than I’ve received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!"
Musk also publicly agreed with X’s Head of Product, who responded to Altman, saying, “Perhaps it is you who is manipulating your products to your benefit, by putting warnings on every link to a competitor?” He then showed a screenshot of ChatGPT's warning message for external links.
The fight continued for hours, with the official ChatGPT X account eventually reposting a response from xAI's Grok that said, "Musk has a history of directing X algorithm changes to boost his posts and favor his interests, per 2023 reports and ongoing probes. Hypocrisy noted."
Musk followed that up by posting a Grok screenshot of his own, which showed the chatbot determining that Musk is more trustworthy than Altman. Real mature stuff that I'm sure Apple is thrilled to be dragged into.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.