Elon Musk Accuses Apple of Unfair App Store Ranking System

It’s safe to assume that Elon Musk sees enough upside in this strategy to keep pursuing it, despite the inherent risks.

This time, Musk has chosen to take aim at Apple once again—this time over app rankings and the fact that his Grok AI app has yet to hit number one on the relevant app store charts.

Since the debut of xAI’s latest Grok 4 model, alongside its AI companions and the “Imagine” text-to-video generator, downloads of the Grok app have been climbing. Still, Musk insists that Apple is intentionally limiting the app’s visibility, ignoring what he describes as obvious demand.

In Musk’s own words:

“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.”

The problem? That statement is simply false.

As multiple users have highlighted—and as a Community Note on Musk’s post confirms—various AI apps, including Perplexity, DeepSeek, and Meta AI, have all reached the top of the App Store charts in the past.

So, Apple clearly isn’t blocking all AI apps apart from OpenAI. Nevertheless, Musk has doubled down, spending the day taking further shots at Apple and accusing the tech giant of anti-competitive practices that, in his view, unfairly benefit OpenAI.

Even OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, couldn’t resist weighing in:

“This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”

Altman was alluding to reports that Musk prioritizes his own posts on X and that Grok’s AI chatbot sometimes factors in Musk’s views when generating responses on certain topics.

Musk brushed this off by labeling Altman a liar—though notably, he has never outright denied either allegation.

That particular spat is just Silicon Valley drama, but the real story remains Musk’s public accusations against Apple and his threat of legal action. It’s hard to believe he thinks he could actually win such a case—especially since, again, several AI apps have already topped the App Store. And history offers a reminder: the last time Musk tangled with Apple (over its 30% App Store commission), he quickly backed down when it became apparent that Apple could remove X from its store entirely, a move that would have dealt a severe blow to the platform.

So why walk this road again?

The answer seems obvious—controversy generates attention. Both X and xAI benefit from the media coverage Musk’s claims inevitably spark.

Musk has mastered the art of staying in the headlines. One of the biggest perks of having him at the helm is that his companies can stay relevant without relying heavily on paid advertising. His own posts function as a global PR engine, ensuring his ventures remain part of the cultural conversation. The only real question is whether that attention is ultimately helpful—or harmful.

Conventional wisdom says “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” and in some cases, the phrase holds water. But Musk’s political positions have eroded Tesla’s brand image, affecting both sales and market value. Meanwhile, X’s user numbers have dipped since his takeover.

It’s possible Musk is proving that old adage wrong in today’s media environment. Still, his ventures enjoy enormous visibility without a proportional ad spend, and the sheer volume of coverage he generates is worth billions in equivalent media value.

That’s likely what’s driving this latest clash. Musk must know the claim is easy to disprove. He has also previously accused Apple of limiting X’s reach—despite X itself manipulating its App Store category by labeling the app as “news” to boost rankings, even though it’s not, strictly speaking, a news platform.

He surely knows this isn’t a battle he can win. But here we are—writing, reading, and talking about it—which means the publicity objective has already been achieved.

If history is any guide, within days Musk will likely declare the issue resolved, announce he’s had a “great conversation” with Apple CEO Tim Cook, and move on. That’s exactly how their last feud ended. Still, poking Apple carries real danger.

Case in point: X’s Grok chatbot recently went offline after making contentious claims about genocide in Gaza—another controversy that could give Apple grounds to pull both X and xAI from the App Store. Such a move would be catastrophic for both products.

So yes, Musk is taking a gamble here. But so far, the tactic keeps delivering what he seems to value most—attention.

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