Sam Altman fires back at Elon Musk’s Apple–OpenAI bias allegations

Sam Altman, Elon Musk

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has responded to Elon Musk’s latest outburst — a threat to sue Apple for allegedly favouring OpenAI’s ChatGPT over rival AI apps in the App Store. Musk’s charge, calling the practice an “unequivocal antitrust violation”, came after his xAI app Grok surged in Apple’s rankings but failed to unseat ChatGPT from the top spot.

Altman’s reply, posted shortly after Musk’s comments, was pointed. “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,” he wrote, suggesting Musk may be guilty of the very behaviour he accuses others of.

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. https://t.co/HlgzO4c2iC

— Sam Altman (@sama) August 12, 2025

The OpenAI boss went further and posted an article which claimed that Musk created a special system for showing all X users his posts first. Altman in the post expressed hope that any potential legal process might open the door to “counter-discovery” — effectively inviting scrutiny into Musk’s own practices. “I and many others would love to know what’s been happening,” Altman added.

Despite the sharp jab, Altman ended on a note of calm defiance: “But OpenAI will just stay focused on making great products.”

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before parting ways early, has been in an escalating feud with the company since launching xAI. His latest spat adds Apple into the mix, given its partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and other Apple Intelligence features. Whether Musk follows through with his lawsuit remains to be seen  but Altman appears ready for a legal and PR battle if it comes.