On Monday night, Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk claimed that Apple is keeping AI companies other than OpenAI from reaching the No. 1 spot in its App Store, calling it “an unequivocal antitrust violation.” Musk provided no proof of wrongdoing by Apple beyond than pointing out that Apple has a partnership with OpenAI to use ChatGPT on its AI iPhones.
Other AI apps have previously ranked No. 1 among Top Free Apps on Apple’s US App Store — including xAI’s Grok. Earlier this year, Grok spent several days atop the App Store before being once again bested by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to Appfigures.
Sherwood News
ChatGPT is a consumer favorite, with people choosing it over other AI assistants licensed by their companies, while Grok as recently as last month was in the news for praising Hitler. China’s DeepSeek also topped the App Store earlier this year. Both Grok and DeepSeek ranked No. 1 after Apple announced its OpenAI partnership back in 2024. Today Grok is No. 5 while ChatGPT is No. 1.
Musk has been on a publicity push lately for Grok 4, offering it for free and advertising its image and video generation tool Grok Imagine.
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