Key Takeaways
Elon Musk intends to sue Apple for allegedly restricting AI companies in the App Store.
Musk claims Apple unfairly favors OpenAI while blocking competitors like xAI from top rankings.
Elon Musk has threatened to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, claiming the tech giant unfairly restricts AI companies, except OpenAI, from reaching top positions in its App Store.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2025
Unfortunately, what choice do we have?
Apple didn’t just put their thumb on the scale, they put their whole body!
https://t.co/NM7gaLwvyG
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2025
Musk’s AI company xAI is a direct competitor to OpenAI. Last week, OpenAI launched GPT-5, its latest and most advanced AI model, but Musk claimed xAI’s Grok 4 Heavy had already outsmarted it.
Apple has worked closely with OpenAI to embed ChatGPT’s functionality across its platforms, including iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The collaboration enhances Siri’s conversational skills, integrates ChatGPT within Apple’s writing applications, and facilitates image and document comprehension.
Following their partnership announcement, Musk publicly threatened to ban Apple devices in his companies if Apple integrated OpenAI technology into its operating systems. He described this as “an unacceptable security violation” and suggested visitors to Tesla, SpaceX, and his other firms might have to surrender their Apple devices.
If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024
Apple is expanding this partnership and considering using AI models from OpenAI to power its updated Siri assistant, alongside models from Anthropic, Bloomberg reported in June.