Elon Musk threatens Apple with antitrust suit

In a post on his social media site X $TWTR, Musk said his company xAI would take “immediate legal action” against the iPhone maker for alleged prejudice in its App Store. 

Musk went on to claim that Apple won’t let any AI app reach the top spot in its store other than OpenAI's ChatGPT. 

“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,” he said.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to Musk's claim in his own post on X.

"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 said.

OpenAI and Apple announced a partnership back in June 2024 through which the iPhone maker planned to incorporate ChatGPT — OpenAI’s chatbot — into its iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Siri, and Writing Tools later that year. In early July, Bloomberg reported that Apple might bench its own artificial intelligence technology and instead use either Anthropic or OpenAI’s tech to power a Siri update due next year. 

A community note was added to Musk’s post negating his allegations; it cited articles that detail times when other AI companies, including DeepSeek and Perplexity, held the top spot in Apple’s App Store after its OpenAI deal was announced. 

Musk’s legal threats would add to Apple’s mounting legal challenges. The tech giant is already dealing with a domestic antitrust lawsuit and escalating fines for its App Store in the European Union. In a suit that was filed against Apple in March of last year by the Department of Justice, the iPhone maker was accused of monopolizing the smartphone market. In late June, a judge ruled that the suit could move forward despite Apple's efforts to squash it.

Musk is facing his own legal woes. Last week, Tesla $TSLA shareholders filed a lawsuit against the electric vehicle company and Musk over its robotaxi claims. Just days before the suit, Tesla was found partially liable in a fatal Autopilot crash and ordered to pay over $300 million in damages.