OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly clashed with Elon Musk on X (formerly Twitter) over allegations that Apple is manipulating App Store rankings. The dispute began after Musk claimed that Apple was artificially keeping xAI’s Grok chatbot in second place in the AI app category, preventing it from becoming number one.
Altman, whose company develops the popular ChatGPT app, questioned Musk's words, hinting at his own methods in managing 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 wrote.
Musk responded sharply, accusing Altman of lying:
"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!"
After that, Altman challenged Musk, promising to apologize if he confirmed under oath that he never interfered with X's algorithms with the aim of harming competitors or helping his own companies:
"will you sign an affidavit that you have never directed changes to the X algorithm in a way that has hurt your competitors or helped your own companies? i will apologize if so."
The verbal exchange marked a new round of tensions between Musk and Altman. Elon, a former co-founder of OpenAI, has long been an outspoken critic of his, while Altman has repeatedly called Musk's attacks baseless and said that "Musk's whole life is spent in insecurity." Musk is still suing OpenAI, demanding that it prevent the company from transitioning from a nonprofit to a for-profit organization. Elon had previously even offered to buy OpenAI.
Apple has not yet commented on Musk's accusations about Grok's ratings on the App Store. While the App Store's recommendation algorithms remain opaque, the company has consistently denied any manipulation in favor of or against specific developers. In particular, Musk's words are refuted by the fact that the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek app was ranked first in the App Store's AI app rankings in January 2025.