'This is an unreasonable...', Elon Musk reacts to Apple-Google AI deal

Elon Musk

• Musk criticizes Apple's Google Gemini deal, claiming it gives Google excessive power.
• Apple criticized for using Google AI amid antitrust and rivalry issues.
• Musk's xAI faces controversy over Grok chatbot and app store issues

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Apple’s decision to use Google’s Gemini models to power next-generation Siri and Apple Foundation Models is already drawing political and industry backlash. Among the loudest critics is Elon Musk, who described the partnership as “an unreasonable concentration of power” for Google.

Musk made the comment on X shortly after Google confirmed a multi-year agreement with Apple to provide Gemini models and cloud infrastructure for future Apple Intelligence features. Responding directly to Google’s post, Musk argued that the deal compounds Google’s existing dominance.

“This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that they also have Android and Chrome,” Musk wrote.

The criticism lands at a sensitive moment for both companies. Apple is under pressure to close the gap with rivals after years of lagging behind in generative AI, while Google is fighting multiple antitrust cases in the US and abroad related to its market power in search, advertising and browsers.

Why Musk is weighing in

Musk’s intervention is not just ideological. His AI company, xAI, is currently suing Apple and OpenAI over their earlier partnership that brought ChatGPT into Siri and Apple Intelligence as an optional add-on. Musk has claimed that Apple’s App Store practices unfairly favour OpenAI and prevent competing assistants such as Grok from gaining visibility.

In earlier posts, Musk accused Apple of behaving in a way that makes it “impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store,” calling it a clear antitrust violation. While those claims have been widely challenged, the lawsuit has survived initial dismissal attempts and is scheduled to proceed.

Musk’s argument is that this convergence risks leaving too much influence in the hands of one company that already controls Android, Chrome and large parts of the web’s infrastructure. Whether regulators agree remains an open question.

Recently, Grok has faced international backlash after being used to generate non-consensual and sexualised images, including content involving minors. This has led countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia to block the chatbot, alongside investigations and calls to remove the xAI app from the App Store.