Elon Musk Announces xAI’s Legal Action Against Apple Over App Store Rankings

On Monday (August 11), technology magnate Elon Musk declared that his artificial intelligence venture, xAI, will take legal action against Apple, alleging that the iPhone maker's App Store ranking practices violate antitrust laws by unfairly favoring OpenAI. Musk claims that such conduct makes it virtually impossible for other AI companies to achieve the top spot.

Overview: Musk Accuses Apple of Antitrust Breach

Musk's Accusations & Context

Elon Musk questioned why X (formerly Twitter) and Grok—his AI chatbot—are excluded from Apple’s “Must Have” apps section, despite X being the #1 news app globally and Grok ranking fifth overall. He labeled this selective treatment a political move.

Current App Rankings & Lack of Response

Presently, OpenAI’s ChatGPT holds the #1 position in the App Store's “Top Free Apps” for iPhones in the U.S., while Grok stands at fifth, and Gemini is much lower at 57th. Neither Apple, xAI, nor OpenAI have responded to media inquiries.

Legal Backdrop & Regulatory Scrutiny

Musk’s accusations come against the backdrop of increasing impartial regulatory attention on Apple’s App Store dominance. In April, a U.S. judge referred Apple for a criminal contempt probe, citing non-compliance with an earlier court order demanding greater platform competition. Additionally, the EU imposed a €500 million fine on Apple for preventing developers from directing users to cheaper offers outside the App Store, in violation of the Digital Markets Act.

What is xA

xAI is a prominent artificial intelligence (AI) company founded by Elon Musk in March 2023. Its stated mission is to "understand the true nature of the universe" by developing AI systems that can help humanity with scientific discovery. The company operates as a separate entity from Musk's other ventures like Tesla and SpaceX, but it has close ties to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), which Musk also owns.

Key Aspects of xAI

• Founder and Vision: The company was founded by a team of researchers from prominent AI labs like Google's DeepMind, Microsoft Research, and OpenAI. As CEO, Elon Musk has been a vocal proponent of building an AI that is "maximally truth-seeking" and not limited by what he describes as "politically correct" biases.
• Flagship Product: Grok: xAI's primary product is Grok, a generative AI chatbot. Grok is distinguished by its unique, witty personality and its ability to access real-time information from the X platform. This integration gives it a significant advantage in providing up-to-date and conversational responses on current events.
• Technological Foundation: xAI's models, such as Grok 4, are trained on vast datasets, including proprietary data from X and other sources. The company has also made some of its models, like Grok-2, open-source, in a move to promote transparency and collaboration within the AI community.

• Recent Developments: In recent months, xAI has been aggressively expanding its capabilities and resources. The company has raised significant funding, with a valuation of around $80 billion as of July 2025, and is actively building a massive AI supercomputer to train its advanced models. In August 2025, xAI also announced plans to take legal action against Apple, alleging anti-competitive practices on the App Store that hinder other AI companies from competing with OpenAI.