San Francisco: Elon Musk has taken his feud against OpenAI to the App Store, accusing Apple of favoring ChatGPT in the digital shop and vowing legal action.

"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," Musk posted on Monday on his social media platform, X. He did not provide evidence to support the claim but added that "xAI will take immediate legal action."

The accusation comes just days after both OpenAI and xAI launched new versions of their AI chatbots – ChatGPT and Grok, respectively. As of Tuesday, ChatGPT ranked as the number one free iPhone app in the App Store, with Musk’s Grok sitting in fifth place.

X users were quick to counter Musk’s claim, noting that rival AI platforms including DeepSeek AI, a Chinese firm, and Perplexity AI had both previously reached the top of the App Store charts in various regions, including India earlier this year. Both companies are considered competitors to OpenAI and Musk’s xAI.

Has Apple reacted to this?

Apple has yet to comment on Musk’s accusations. App Store rankings are determined by a mix of factors including download volume, user engagement, and reviews.

In June 2024, Apple and OpenAI announced a partnership to integrate ChatGPT features more deeply into iPhones and other Apple devices – a move that may have added fuel to Musk’s latest complaint. ChatGPT’s latest version, GPT-5, has been rolled out free of charge to its nearly 700 million weekly users, OpenAI confirmed in a press briefing last week.

Musk’s grievance with OpenAI stretches beyond the App Store. In April 2025, OpenAI filed counterclaims in a California federal court in response to a lawsuit Musk brought against the company last year. The countersuit accused Musk, a former co-founder of OpenAI, of launching a "relentless campaign" to damage the organisation after leaving it and watching it achieve major success without him.

The company claimed Musk was now attempting to "take down OpenAI" and build a competing AI powerhouse "not for humanity but for Elon Musk."

Musk launched xAI in 2023, joining a crowded field of tech giants like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft – all of whom have invested billions in generative AI since the debut of ChatGPT in late 2022.

Chinese challenger DeepSeek gained attention in early 2025 with a high-performing AI model that uses less expensive hardware, further intensifying the global AI arms race.