Elon Musk formally sues Apple for favoring ChatGPT over Grok in the App Store

Elon Musk formally sues Apple for favoring ChatGPT over Grok in the App Store

Elon Musk is facing another problem, this time with Apple. He has filed a formal lawsuit against Apple, accusing it of rigging the App Store to favor OpenAI over other alternatives. The charge is that Grok cannot compete on an equal footing because Apple promotes ChatGPT and other apps from Sam Altman's company in prominent locations, while systematically excluding other alternatives.

The lawsuit explains that if you own an iPhone and want to use an AI-powered chatbot, you have no choice but to download ChatGPT as the first option. According to Musk and xAI, iOS users have no real alternatives because Apple manipulates its search, ranking, and recommendation systems to find OpenAI solutions before any other available options.

Court documents show that on August 24, 2025, neither X nor Grok appeared in the "Must-Have" section of the App Store. Neither Musk's apps were included in that recommendation list, a pattern the complaint alleges is consistent with other direct competitors to ChatGPT in the generative AI market, demonstrating the alleged bias.

Apple has not issued any official statements regarding this particular lawsuit, although it has previously defended the integrity and transparency of its App Store to media outlets such as Bloomberg. The App Store promotes thousands of apps objectively using automated algorithms and recommendations crafted by human experts, according to the company, which denies any favoritism toward specific developers.

The outcome of this new lawsuit could fundamentally change the rules of competition between Apple and developers who directly compete with the company's preferred apps. This case could set a precedent for how major tech companies manage their app stores and ensure fair competition, particularly in highly competitive sectors such as artificial intelligence.