Elon Musk Threatens Apple with Antitrust Lawsuit over App Store AI Rankings
Elon Musk feels disadvantaged: The Tesla boss threatens Apple with a cartel lawsuit and accuses the group of acting unfairly against AI competitors in the App Store. While topai or chatgpt are in first place, his GROK app only ranks fifth.
Musk vs. Apple: Cartel lawsuit for App Store
Elon Musk threatened Apple with immediate legal steps and accused the iPhone manufacturer to violate antitrust law. The billionaire accuses Apple to make it impossible to achieve AI companies that are not called Openaai, first place in the App Store. His Grok app from Xai is currently only fifth, while Openais Chatgpt leads the top. Musk writes on X: “Apple behaves in such a way that it is impossible for every AI company except Openai to reach place one in the App Store, which is a clear antitrust violation.”
In addition, he criticized that neither X nor GROK appear in Apple’s “must have” section, although in his opinion X is the number one news app worldwide. The timing for Musk’s announcement is not accidental: Currently, regulatory authorities and competitors are intensifying their examination of Apple’s control over the App Store. How Reuters reports, Apple has a partnership with Openaai that integrates chatt in iPhones, iPads and Macs. This strategic alliance was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024 and enables users to use Chatgpt directly via Siri and other Apple services.
Background of the Musk-Openai feud
The current accusations are part of a larger argument between Musk and Openai. Musk and Sam Altman founded Openai in 2015 as a non -profit organization with the aim of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of mankind. However, Musk left the board in 2018 after internal disagreements about the strategic orientation of the company. Since then he has sued the company several times and accuses him of having given up his original non -profit mission.
Musk particularly criticizes the conversion of Openai into a profit -oriented company and the close partnership with Microsoft, which has invested over eleven billion dollars into the company. Apple is already store practices worldwide because of its app, under observation of various regulatory authorities. In April, a US judge imposed a punishment against Apple for violating a court order regarding the app store. The EU cartel authority took Apple with a fine of 1.8 billion euros (around 1.55 billion euros according to current courses) due to technical and commercial restrictions in the app store.
GROK is fighting for market position
Despite the allegations, Grok shows success in certain metrics. After the launch of Grok 4, the iOS downloads rose by 279 percent to 197,000 daily. The gross turnover jumped by 325 percent to $ 419,000 (around 360,000 euros). Nevertheless, this is not enough for the top position in the highly competitive AI app market. It remains to be seen whether Musk presents his threats. He has a story of legal disputes that do not always lead to concrete complaints.
