On August 11, billionaire Elon Musk threatened to sue Apple for allegedly violating antitrust laws related to the ranking of the Grok AI chatbot application of his company xAI.

“Apple is behaving in a way that makes it impossible for any AI company other than OpenAI to reach the #1 spot in the App Store. This is a clear antitrust violation. xAI will sue immediately,” Musk wrote on the X platform.

Apple has not yet responded to CNBC’s request for comment.

“Why does Apple refuse to put X or Grok in the ‘Must Have’ section when X is the number 1 news app in the world and Grok is number 5 of all apps? Is Apple playing politics?”, Mr. Musk continued to question.

CNBC confirmed that ChatGPT is currently at the top of the free apps list in the US iOS store and is the only AI chatbot in Apple’s “Must-Have Apps” section.

Apple last year partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other products. Musk responded strongly at the time: “If Apple integrates OpenAI at the operating system level, Apple devices will be banned from my company. It is an unacceptable security breach.”

Before threatening to sue Apple, Mr. Musk celebrated when Grok surpassed Google to become the fifth-most popular free app on Apple’s App Store.

The tension comes amid an increasingly fierce AI race. OpenAI unveiled its most advanced large-scale AI model, GPT-5, on Thursday, while Musk’s xAI launched its Grok chatbot four months ago.

Mr Musk’s accusations of Apple favoring OpenAI reflect the fierce competition in the AI industry, where reaching users through large platforms like the App Store has become a key factor.