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Sam Altman hits back at Musk in row over Apple’s app store rankings
Elon Musk's own artificial intelligence venture xAI has been climbing Apple’s app charts with its Grok product.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has issued a sharp rebuttal to Elon Musk’s latest accusation — a threat to sue Apple for allegedly giving preferential treatment to OpenAI’s ChatGPT over competing AI applications in the App Store.
Elon Musk, whose own artificial intelligence venture xAI has been climbing Apple’s app charts with its Grok product, claimed the technology giant’s approach amounted to an “unequivocal antitrust violation”. His remarks came after Grok’s recent surge in popularity failed to dislodge ChatGPT from the top position.
Responding on social media shortly after Musk’s comments, Altman questioned the basis of the complaint. “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 wrote, implying that Musk might be guilty of the same practices he condemns.
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. https://t.co/HlgzO4c2iC
— Sam Altman (@sama) August 12, 2025
Altman went on to share an article alleging that Musk had built a system within X to ensure his own posts appeared first for all users. He further suggested that any future legal proceedings could lead to “counter-discovery”, potentially exposing Musk’s internal decision-making processes. “I and many others would love to know what’s been happening,” Altman added.
Despite the pointed remarks, Altman closed with a measured sign-off: “But OpenAI will just stay focused on making great products.”
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before leaving the organisation in its early years, has maintained an increasingly acrimonious relationship with the company since founding xAI. His latest clash now extends to Apple, whose partnership with OpenAI has integrated ChatGPT into Siri and other Apple Intelligence capabilities.
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