Apple’s inventory is down almost 20% to this point in 2025, dropping greater than $750 billion in market worth and falling from its place because the world’s most dear firm, significantly because of investor disappointment round Apple’s synthetic intelligence efforts, with the corporate’s “Apple Intelligence” suite failing to impress. This week, Apple has a contemporary AI-related headache—however this time, it comes courtesy of world’s richest man Elon Musk, who’s threatening “quick authorized motion” if the tech large doesn’t take away OpenAI’s ChatGPT from the highest of its App Retailer rankings.
All of it unfolded late Monday, when the billionaire Tesla CEO took to the social community he purchased for $44 billion, X, to stage pointed accusations at Apple and its App Retailer practices. Musk alleged that Apple’s rating system “makes it unimaginable for any AI firm in addition to OpenAI to succeed in #1 within the App Retailer,” claiming this quantities to a “clear antitrust violation” and vowing that his synthetic intelligence startup, xAI, “will take quick authorized motion.”
Battle over App Retailer rankings
On the coronary heart of Musk’s criticism is Grok, the AI chatbot launched by his xAI startup as a direct competitor to ChatGPT. As of Tuesday morning, ChatGPT holds the coveted prime spot amongst free apps in Apple’s App Retailer in america, whereas Grok sits at sixth. For context: Google’s Gemini chatbot trails far behind, rating 57th. Musk alleges improper favoritism, particularly given Apple’s high-profile partnership with OpenAI, introduced in June 2024, that integrates ChatGPT extra deeply with iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
“Apple is appearing in a manner that hinders any AI agency, aside from OpenAI, from attaining the highest place within the App Retailer, which constitutes a transparent violation of antitrust legal guidelines,” Musk wrote in a single put up. He additional questioned Apple’s editorial choices: “Why do you decline to incorporate both X or Grok in your ‘Should Have’ class when X holds the title of the world’s main information app and Grok ranks fifth amongst all functions? Are you participating in political maneuvering?”
Apple and OpenAI face rising scrutiny
Musk’s assault on Apple arrives in a local weather of mounting regulatory scrutiny. Earlier this yr, a U.S. choose discovered Apple in violation of a courtroom order requiring adjustments to App Retailer competitors guidelines, following a lawsuit by online game studio Epic Video games. The European Union fined Apple €500 million in April for blocking app builders from steering customers to cheaper exterior affords, citing anti-competitive conduct. Apple is interesting the choice.
Apple has but to publicly reply to Musk’s newest accusations.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman rapidly fired again at Musk’s claims. “This can be a outstanding declare given what I’ve heard alleged that Elon does to control X to profit himself and his personal firms and hurt his rivals and other people he doesn’t like,” Altman wrote on X, highlighting the generally cutthroat competitors inside the AI sector.
The broader stakes
Whereas Musk asserts that Apple is locking out rivals, some business observers have solid doubt on the declare. Notably, DeepSeek, an AI chatbot from China, managed to succeed in the highest total spot on the App Retailer again in January—months after Apple’s partnership with OpenAI was introduced. Critics level out that Musk has but to supply concrete proof that Apple is actively manipulating rankings to drawback Grok or different rivals.
The combat between Musk and Apple displays the excessive stakes within the race to dominate shopper AI platforms. With over 1 billion iPhone customers worldwide, App Retailer rankings could make or break new applied sciences searching for widespread adoption. Musk has positioned Grok as a clear and fewer censored different to ChatGPT, searching for to disrupt the prevailing market that he helped create when he co-founded OpenAI in 2015 earlier than departing in 2018 over strategic disagreements.
The dispute marks an escalation in Musk’s broader marketing campaign in opposition to massive tech and perceived abuses of platform energy, with potential implications for a way digital marketplaces deal with AI, app curation, and competitors.
