Elon Musk Blasts App Store for Alleged ChatGPT Bias—Tech War Escalates

Elon Musk just dropped a bombshell accusation—and Apple's walled garden is in the crosshairs. The billionaire claims the App Store rigs the game for OpenAI's ChatGPT, leaving rivals scrambling for scraps. Here's why this fight matters.

Gatekeepers or kingmakers? Musk's outburst spotlights Apple's iron grip on app distribution. Critics say the 30% 'Apple tax' already skews the playing field—now add alleged algorithmic favoritism to the mix. 'But it's fine,' said no startup ever while writing a check to Cupertino.

The AI arms race gets messy. With ChatGPT dominating mindshare, competitors cry foul over discoverability. Musk's xAI venture Grok reportedly gets buried in search—coincidence or curation? Apple stays characteristically silent, counting its $1 trillion market cap all the way to the bank.

Finance jab: At least someone's turning a profit in AI—too bad it's the middleman, not the builders.

In Brief

• Elon Musk accuses Apple of deliberately excluding Grok and X from its “Must Have” section despite their strong rankings.
• This controversy is part of a broader antitrust battle against Apple’s dominance over the App Store.
• Legal experts see it as a crucial test between curation rights and anti-competitive practices.

A direct accusation against Apple’s policy

Monday, Elon Musk rekindled tensions with Apple by directly attacking its curation methods on the App Store. 

The head of X publicly challenged Cupertino firm’s promotion strategy, pointing out the absence of its own services in the prestigious “Must Have” section.

“Hey Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps?” Musk called out on his platform.

Then, with a touch of irony, he added: “Are you playing politics? What gives? Inquiring minds want to know.“

These statements reflect the escalation of a conflict between two technological giants with divergent interests. Musk accuses Apple of favoring OpenAI’s ChatGPT at the expense of its own solutions. For him, this choice reveals a structural bias that WOULD distort competition in a key sector: artificial intelligence.

Behind this clash lies a major strategic issue: visibility on iOS. The “Must Have” section acts as a premium showcase, able to boost an app towards millions of downloads and directly influence its adoption by the general public.

Musk believes that the exclusion of X and Grok, despite their performance, illustrates Apple’s abusive use of its dominant position, a matter already at the heart of numerous international antitrust investigations.

A conflict with major antitrust stakes

This controversy arises as Apple is already under close scrutiny by US and European authorities, who are investigating the App Store’s dominance and its rules imposed on developers, notably the commissions charged.

For Andrew Rossow, a specialized lawyer and CEO of AR Media Consulting, the legal issue is subtle: 

The key is with distinguishing between legitimate editorial curation (which platforms generally have the right to exercise) and anti-competitive conduct that harms the competitive process.

Courts will have to assess the consistency of Apple’s policies, their business motivations, and their overall impact on the market. He reminds that antitrust law protects competition, not individual competitors. Musk will therefore have to prove that the difficulties of X and Grok stem directly from Apple’s practices, and not from internal shortcomings.

Some observers adopt a firmer tone. Himanshu Tyagi, professor at the Indian Institute of Science, speaks of “pure censorship”: if favoritism influences content selection, it could distort competition in AI by limiting access to potentially better products.

This battle is part of a larger fight for control of the tech market. After the allocation of 29 billion dollars in shares to keep him at the head of Tesla, Musk seems determined to defend his interests on all fronts. 

For Jesse Glass, a researcher at DecideAI, the slowdown of progress on large language models makes distribution control even more strategic. 

Musk’s attack on Apple thus goes beyond a simple commercial quarrel: it strikes at the heart of power in AI. If this case leads to legal action, it could redefine the rules of the game between platforms, developers, and regulators. In this war for visibility, Apple’s next decision could weigh far more than a simple editorial choice.

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