Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter) and founder of AI firm xAI, has announced that his company plans to sue Apple, accusing the App Store of anticompetitive behaviour by excluding X and the Grok chatbot from its “Must Have” apps section, despite both ranking highly in popularity. Musk called the exclusion an “unequivocal antitrust violation.”
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In a series of posts on X, Musk questioned why “X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps” yet neither is featured prominently by Apple. He hinted at bias, asking, “Are you playing politics?” and said xAI would take “immediate legal action.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman swiftly responded, calling Musk’s claims ironic, given that Musk previously leveraged control over X’s algorithms to favour his own companies.
At the time of Musk’s post, the top “Must Have” apps in Apple’s U.S. App Store were TikTok, Tinder, Duolingo, YouTube, and Bumble, while ChatGPT sat in seventh position. Grok had not been featured despite being ranked sixth in the “Top Free Apps” section, adding layers to Musk’s accusations.
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Apple has not issued a response. The company has faced increasing regulatory scrutiny over App Store practices, including recent EU fines for limiting developers’ ability to direct users outside the App Store.
