Sam Altman accuses Elon Musk of manipulating X for personal gain

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has hit back at Elon Musk’s claim that Apple is engaging in anti-competitive practices against AI companies, accusing the billionaire of using his social media platform X to benefit his own interests.

In a post on X, Musk alleged that Apple’s actions made it “impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store,” calling it “an unequivocal antitrust violation.”

Altman responded, “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.”



Minutes later, Altman followed up by sharing a Platformer article titled “Yes, Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first”, referencing earlier reports that Musk had altered X’s algorithm to boost visibility of his own posts.


The exchange marks the latest in a series of public spats between the two tech leaders, who have clashed over AI safety, business strategy, and personal criticisms since Musk’s departure from OpenAI’s board in 2018.

Musk, on Monday, announced that his AI company, xAI, plans to take legal action against Apple, accusing the tech giant of violating antitrust laws through its handling of App Store rankings. However, he offered no evidence to support the allegation.

Apple, which has partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads, and Macs, has faced growing criticism from Musk over what he perceives as unfair treatment of rival apps.

In an earlier post, Musk wrote: "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? Are you playing politics?"

Currently, ChatGPT holds the top position in the App Store's “Top Free Apps” category for iPhones in the US, while Grok ranks fifth and Google’s Gemini chatbot is at number 57.