Elon Musk
Elon Musk, the owner of X, has accused Apple of anti-competitive practices and threatened legal action over the company’s App Store rankings.
The tech billionaire took to his page on X to claim that Apple is making it “impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store”.
Musk described the move as an “unequivocal antitrust violation”, vowing that xAI — his artificial intelligence startup — would take “immediate legal action”.
In another post, the billionaire criticised Apple’s choices, questioning why his companies’ apps were excluded from the store’s ‘Must Have’ section.
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“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? Are you playing politics? What gives? Inquiring minds want to know,” Musk posted.
The criticism comes amid Musk’s ongoing feud with OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 but left in 2018.
Last year, the billionaire filed a suit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, its chief executive, for allegedly abandoning the company’s founding mission.
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In response to Musk’s latest remarks, Altman said, “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.”
Apple is yet to respond to the allegations.
The company is already facing multiple antitrust challenges, including a US justice department lawsuit accusing it of running a monopoly over the iPhone ecosystem.
In June, a panel of judges upheld a ruling restricting Apple’s control over in-app payment links on the App Store.
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