August 14, 2025 | 02:30 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The world of artificial intelligence (AI) is witnessing an escalating rivalry, with two of its most prominent figures engaging in a public dispute. Elon Musk, CEO of xAI, has accused Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, of colluding with Apple to monopolize the AI market.
This conflict, which unfolded on the social media platform X, is the latest chapter in a long-standing feud between the two tech magnates.
Musk alleged that Apple’s App Store was engaging in monopolistic behavior by favoring OpenAI. He claimed that Apple's partnership with OpenAI created an unfair environment for other companies, including his own xAI, to compete.
In a post on X on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, Musk wrote, “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.”
Musk highlighted the disparity in app rankings to support his claim. He pointed out that OpenAI's ChatGPT held the top spot in the "Top Free Apps" list in the United States, while xAI’s Grok was ranked fifth.
Musk also questioned Apple’s decision not to include Grok or the X platform in its "Must Have" category, despite X’s claim to be the number one news application globally. In a post at the top of his profile, he wrote, “Are you playing politics?”
Sam Altman's Response
Musk’s accusations were swiftly met with a rebuttal from Altman. The OpenAI CEO accused Musk of manipulating the X platform for his own benefit and at the expense of competitors.
Altman wrote in a post on X, “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 then challenged Musk to sign a legal statement affirming that he had never altered the X algorithm for personal gain, adding that he would apologize if this were true.
In response, Musk called Altman a liar, writing, “You got 3M views on your bullshit post, you liar, far more than I’ve received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!”
However, despite Musk's claims of insurmountable barriers for competitors, the community notes feature on X provided evidence to the contrary. Several other AI applications have previously reached the top spot, including China's DeepSeek in January 2025 and Perplexity in India in July 2025, both after Apple’s partnership with OpenAI was announced in June 2024.
The History Behind the Feud Between Elon Musk and Sam Altman
According to Anadolu Ajans, this public spat is not the first between Musk and Altman. The two co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but their relationship deteriorated in 2018 when Musk resigned from the board of directors. Musk's departure followed the rejection of his demands to become CEO and have majority control of the company.
Since then, Musk has sued OpenAI twice, alleging that the company violated its initial agreement by transitioning from a non-profit to a for-profit entity that collaborated with Microsoft. He has even referred to OpenAI’s actions as a massive betrayal.
Meanwhile, Altman has often characterized Musk as a resentful former colleague who is envious of OpenAI’s success.
This ongoing dispute has also drawn in Apple, a company that has faced multiple antitrust lawsuits. In April 2024, the European Commission fined Apple Rp9.48 trillion for restricting app developers from directing users to external payment options. The U.S. Department of Justice has also accused the company of maintaining an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market.
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