What just happened? Elon Musk says that his xAI company will take legal action against Apple over claims that it is manipulating App Store rankings by favoring OpenAI's ChatGPT. He also alleges that Apple makes it impossible for other AI apps, such as Grok AI, to reach the top spot in the app charts. Musk says these actions are an antitrust violation, leaving him with no other option but to sue.

In his first of several X posts on the matter, Musk wrote, "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."

During WWDC 2024, Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI that would see ChatGPT integrated into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Musk suggests that Apple is favoring OpenAI's apps in its store because of this partnership.

"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? Are you playing politics?" Musk wrote in another post. He also said that xAI has no choice other than to sue as "Apple didn't just put their thumb on the scale, they put their whole body!"

ChatGPT is currently number one on the list of free apps in the American iOS store. It's also the only AI chatbot in Apple's "Must-Have Apps" section, and there was a featured link to the new GPT-5 model at the top of the App Store's "Apps" section.

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GPT-5 has not had the best launch – a fact that Musk leaped on. The new model has been called "horrible" for its short and insufficient replies, more obvious AI-styled responses, and for having less "personality." It also gets a lot of things hilariously wrong.

Sam Altman has responded to Musk's announcement. The OpenAI CEO suggested his rival was being hypocritical given the allegations of Musk manipulating X to benefit his companies while harming competitors.

Musk, who has little love for OpenAI, responded to news of the Apple integration plan last year by threatening to ban its devices from his companies.

The world's richest person was one of the co-founders, backers, and initial board members of OpenAI, departing the company in 2018 over what he said was a conflict of interest with Tesla. He's launched two lawsuits against OpenAI over claims it betrayed the company's founding mission.

Apple is no stranger to anticompetitive allegations. It had faced antitrust lawsuits and investigations, both domestically and abroad, related to the App Store and its device ecosystem.