Elon Musk Threatens to Sue Apple Over App Store Rankings

[MacRumors]

Elon Musk has threatened legal action against Apple, claiming that the company is violating antitrust rules by favoring OpenAI's ChatGPT in App Store rankings over his Grok AI assistant.

"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 X (Twitter), which he also owns.

Musk failed to provide evidence to support his claim. Meanwhile, fellow X users noted that DeepSeek reached #1 overall on the App Store in January, long after Apple's partnership with OpenAI was announced that allows Siri to offload complex queries to ChatGPT.

The tech billionaire also criticized Apple for not featuring X or Grok in the App Store's "Must Have" section. ChatGPT currently holds the top spot for free apps, while Grok ranks sixth. Google's Gemini chatbot sits at 57th.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hit back with his own post on X, calling Musk's claims "remarkable" given allegations about Musk manipulating his own social media platform to benefit his companies.

Musk's remarks come amid growing pressure on Apple from regulators and competitors over its App Store practices. In April, a U.S. judge ruled that Apple violated a court order to open the App Store to more competition and referred the company for a criminal contempt probe, following a case brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games.

The same month, the EU fined Apple €500 million ($587 million) for violating the Digital Markets Act, citing restrictions that blocked developers from directing users to cheaper offers outside the App Store. Apple is currently appealing the fine.

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Article Link: Elon Musk Threatens to Sue Apple Over App Store Rankings

 

[GtrDude]

Good going Elon.
Keep it up!

 

[aperfectcircle]

Someone’s been smoking too many joints today 💨

 

[Total Respray]

Musk really needs to read the room better. You can’t litigate your way to popularity.

 

[breather]

Oh, I did not-see that coming. Elon can just fudge off.

 

[Abazigal]

Too many people are too quick to scream “unfair!!!” these days when they really mean “not to my advantage”.

 

[Macalway]

And the winner here is.....


Lawyers.

 

[Squozen]

I’m so tired of hearing about this drug-addled idiot.

 

[vegetassj4]

Here Elmo, take a good look at the actual problem:

 

[russell_314]

And the winner here is.....


Lawyers.

This is very true and it seems to be the case with any kind of legal nonsense.


What Apple needs to do is publicly show there is no bias in the rankings and it’s just by numbers. Of course, if they’re artificially holding back an app in rankings, then that might cause them problems. Of course, then you have to prove that by holding it back it caused damage somehow.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Oh Elon, you don´t grok it anymore.

 

[Jarman74]

The tech billionaire also criticized Apple for not featuring X or Grok in the App Store's "Must Have" section. ChatGPT currently holds the top spot for free apps, while Grok ranks sixth.

Apple should just put both in a dedicated section - "Musk Have".

 

[avro707]

This will go nowhere. But will burn plenty of cash and make some lawyers happy.

 

[JohnRckr]

That’s all rich people can do, sue someone.
Funny

 

[neuropsychguy]

There are many people, maybe even most people, who would be better served keeping their mouths closed* and just working instead.

*Or fingers still

 

[FNi]

sounds like someone is trying to deflect attention away from a far more concerning reason Grok and the App Store is currently making headlines...

 

[Etc_]

Cook invites him for another day at the Apple campus, and just like that, all will be forgiven. These tech CEOs never leave one of their own behind. Maybe Apple will splash out on a few more X ads to keep Elon content until his next tantrum, when the whole circus starts again.

 

[Zc456]

Sigh... This guy will do anything for attention.

 

[tim_apple]

This guy is so ******* dumb.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Sorry Elon, Grok isn't just poorly ranked because of openAI, it's poorly ranked because of you.

 

[ForkHandles]

Elon’s ai will gladly lie to you, favouring nazi opinions and conspiracy theories over truth.
It’ll even tell you England is awash with riots and revolution.

Is it possible that it’s propensity for hate just affects the apps store rankings?

 

[chrono1081]

So he's angry because he can't make a better product and get higher rankings...has he tried making a non-racist AI?

 

[attila]

Only Elon Musk fans use Grok, and contrary to his belief, not everyone is a fan of Elon Musk.

 

[cjsuk]

He's making a lot of noise to try and get attention. Ignore him and his products and he'll become irrelevant.

 

[russell_314]

Cook invites him for another day at the Apple campus, and just like that, all will be forgiven. These tech CEOs never leave one of their own behind. Maybe Apple will splash out on a few more X ads to keep Elon content until his next tantrum, when the whole circus starts again.

You’re probably right. Tim Cook is a good negotiator. This is one of his major talents that helps him with supply chain. Look at how he got DJT to reduce tariffs on the iPhone. People complain about Cook, but he’s a good CEO.

Maybe Tim Cook could get a deal to license it and replace Siri with one of Grok’s voice assistants. That would be pretty awesome since Siri is about useless.