By Surbhi Misra
(Reuters) -Billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday his artificial intelligence startup xAI would take legal action against Apple, accusing the iPhone maker of breaching antitrust regulations in managing the App Store rankings.
“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,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform X.
Musk did not provide evidence to support his claim. Apple, OpenAI, and xAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
ChatGPT currently holds the top spot in the App Store’s “Top Free Apps” section for iPhones in the U.S., while xAI’s Grok ranks fifth and Google’s Gemini chatbot sits at 57th.
ChatGPT also leads the rankings on the Google Play Store, according to Sensor Tower data.
Apple has a partnership with OpenAI that integrates ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads and Macs.
“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?,” Musk said in an earlier post Monday.
Musk’s comments come as regulators and rivals intensify scrutiny of Apple’s control over its App Store.
In April, a U.S. judge ruled that Apple violated a court order requiring it to allow greater competition in its App Store and referred the company to federal prosecutors for a criminal contempt investigation, in a case brought by ‘Fortnite’ maker Epic Games.
Apple was handed a 500 million euro ($587 million) fine by the EU antitrust enforcer in April, saying its technical and commercial restrictions prevented app developers from steering users to cheaper deals outside the App Store in breach of the Digital Markets Act.
(Reporting by Surbhi Misra and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Kate Mayberry)
