Musk threatens to sue Apple over alleged App Store favouritism for OpenAI 

WEB DESK: Elon Musk has warned Apple that he may take it to court, accusing the tech giant of making it “impossible” for apps to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI in its App Store. 

The X (formerly Twitter) owner also reignited his long-running feud with OpenAI chief Sam Altman, calling him a “liar” after Altman claimed Musk was using his social media platform to “benefit himself and his companies.” 

Ongoing rivalry between tech billionaires 

The dispute is the latest in a series of public clashes between Musk and Altman, who once worked together to co-found OpenAI but are now bitter rivals. Musk left the company years ago and has since accused it of abandoning its original mission. 

Apple announced its partnership with ChatGPT in June 2024. However, there is no public evidence the company is favouring OpenAI’s chatbot over other AI apps. In fact, competitors such as DeepSeek and Perplexity have topped the App Store charts in recent months. The BBC has asked Apple for comment. 

In another post, Musk criticised Apple for not featuring X or Grok, his AI assistant, in the App Store’s “Must Have” section. “X is the number one news app in the world, and Grok is number five among all apps,” he said, adding that ChatGPT currently holds the top spot for free downloads in the UK, with Grok at number three. X, however, is not in the top 40. 

From co-founders to legal foes

Altman appeared to respond by sharing a report suggesting Musk had made his own X posts more visible to users. The bad blood between the two men goes back nearly a decade, rooted in Musk’s belief that OpenAI abandoned its founding principles. 

Founded in 2015, OpenAI was originally a non-profit organisation aiming to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), which refers to AI capable of performing any human task, in an open-source manner for the benefit of humanity. But in 2019, it created a for-profit arm, a move Musk says betrayed that mission. 

In March 2024, Musk sued OpenAI, accusing it of prioritising profits for its major investor Microsoft. He later dropped the lawsuit, but in April, OpenAI filed a counter-suit, claiming Musk had engaged in “bad-faith tactics” to slow down its work. The company also accused him of pursuing his “own agenda”. 

Their rivalry has spilled beyond courtrooms. In February this year, Musk made an unexpected $100 billion (£74 billion) bid to buy OpenAI, which its board promptly rejected.