Musk: xAI will take legal action against Apple

On August 12, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk released a strongly worded statement on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), publicly accusing Apple of discrimination and antitrust violations.

In his post, Musk directly addressed the Apple App Store: "Hey App Store, why are you refusing to include X or Grok in your 'Must-Have Apps' section?" He claimed that according to ranking data, X is "the number one news app in the world," while Grok (an AI chatbot developed by Musk's company xAI) is "number five of all apps." Musk questioned Apple's motives, asking, "Are you playing politics? What's going on?" In subsequent posts, Musk made even more serious accusations.

He declared, "Apple's actions make it impossible for any AI company other than OpenAI to reach the number one spot in the App Store, which is a clear antitrust violation." He explicitly stated that in response, "xAI will take immediate legal action," hinting at an antitrust lawsuit against Apple.

As of press time, Apple has not publicly responded to this matter. Apple's "Must-Have Apps" section is independently selected and recommended by its editorial team based on a variety of factors, and the specific selection criteria are not fully disclosed.

Musk's public accusation has brought the underlying conflict between the two tech giants to the surface, and the actual progress of his legal threat and Apple's response are attracting much attention from the industry.