Tech billionaire Elon Musk has vowed to take Apple to court, accusing the iPhone maker of deliberately sidelining his social platform X and its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok from prime positions in the App Store.
In a series of posts on X, Musk claimed that despite X being “the number one news app in the world” and Grok ranking among the top five AI apps globally, neither appeared in Apple’s coveted “Must Have” section. Instead, Musk alleged, Apple has given preferential treatment to rival products most notably OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“This is an unequivocal antitrust violation,” Musk wrote, accusing Apple of using its App Store dominance to stifle competition in the fast-growing AI market. “xAI will take immediate legal action,” he added, referring to his AI company behind Grok.
Apple has not publicly responded to Musk’s accusations.
The move comes as Apple faces mounting scrutiny over its App Store practices. In April, the European Union fined the company €500 million for restricting app developers from steering customers toward cheaper payment options outside Apple’s ecosystem. The company has also been embroiled in a protracted legal battle with Epic Games over in-app payment rules.
App Store charts currently show ChatGPT consistently in the top spot for AI tools, with Grok trailing several places behind. Musk contends that the rankings don’t tell the whole story, suggesting Apple’s editorial curation separate from download-based rankings unfairly influences which apps gain visibility.
It remains unclear when Musk will file his lawsuit or in which jurisdiction. However, his latest salvo is likely to intensify ongoing debates about Big Tech’s control over digital marketplaces and whether App Store gatekeeping amounts to monopolistic behavior.
