Elon Musk's antitrust claims refuted by Apple citing curation for safe discovery

AppleInsider

Elon Musk's xAI may be entering a new lawsuit against Apple on the grounds that Apple favors ChatGPT and others, but Apple denies any favoritism in the App Store.

Grok struggles to compete with ChatGPT in Apple's App Store

Complaints around Apple's App Store and its partnership with OpenAI started on Monday, with Elon Musk sharing and quote posting multiple accounts citing fairness. It wasn't long before Elon Musk stated that xAI would bring a lawsuit against Apple over antitrust control of the App Store, but whether it has or will remains to be seen.

About a day later, Apple shared its response to the accusations, citing that it doesn't play favorites with the App Store. The statement was shared with Bloomberg and simply says the App Store "is designed to be fair and free of bias."

"We feature thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations, and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria," Apple said in an email. "Our goal is to offer safe discovery for users and valuable opportunities for developers, collaborating with many to increase app visibility in rapidly evolving categories."

Musk initially called Apple's App Store and its features sections "playing politics." While the initial complaints mentioned both X and Grok, Musk has shifted his attention fully to Grok's place in this situation.

It seems that Apple's partnership with OpenAI and Sam Altman, Musk's former partner and project, has caused some annoyance. The accusation basically centers around the idea that ChatGPT is frequently number one on the App Store, shown in featured categories, and even currently has a big widget promoting ChatGPT 5.

Grok never gets that kind of editorial support on the App Store, and it usually sits around number 5 in the free app charts. Apple's statement emphasizing safety may be related to Grok's recent "Mecha Hitler" meltdown and its various features like "spicy mode."

Love triangle: Apple, Musk, Altman

Musk's irritation quickly shifted from Apple to Altman himself after a brief exchange on X. Altman says that OpenAI will stay focused on making great products.

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

Musk's relationship with Apple and Altman has been put on display before. He previously shared misinformation about Apple and OpenAI's deal, likely in irritation about not being offered similar.

More drama previously erupted when Musk complained about Apple not using his satellite service, not advertising on X (they've since returned under government pressure), and even fought against Apple's 30% commission.

After Musk got angry at Altman, he used the attention on his threatened lawsuit to promote Grok. His pinned post at the time of publication asks users to show friends and family to use Grok, and in another, he asks users to leave 5-star reviews on the App Store.

Regardless of Musk's massive 224 million followers and desperate pleas for attention, Grok still remains at number five in free apps, and X is down at number 38 on Tuesday evening. That is more of a sign of the waning power that X holds versus any direct influence from Apple.



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nickott

For someone who has done so well in life, could he be any more of a childish loser? I used to admire him but at this point I will never use or buy anything attached to his name.

sconosciuto

NickoTT said:

For someone who has done so well in life, could he be any more of a childish loser? I used to admire him but at this point I will never use or buy anything attached to his name.

Donny Smallhands has entered the chat

mikethemartian

Apple has a paid Ads service to promote apps.

paisleydisco

The headline should read:

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xed

NickoTT said:

For someone who has done so well in life, could he be any more of a childish loser? I used to admire him but at this point I will never use or buy anything attached to his name.

Has he "done well in life? I don't think so. Sure, he's resealed and grifted his way into a fortune which has allowed him to convince a lot of women to sleep with him but none of that are things I consider to be goals to happiness and fulfillment or having a positive impact on others. One could easily argue that we all have different definitions for doing well in life and that Musk would classify himself as successful for having the world's highest net worth, but I would then counter with a query about his drug use and continued efforts toward skullduggery as being signs that doesn't seem fulfilled or happy.

strangedays

Musk has always been a grifting loser who failed upward, starting with his emerald mine family wealth. His insecurity and self-loathing is plain for all to see.