An old feud between two Silicon Valley giants, XAI founder Elon Musk and OpenAI chief Sam Altman, has reignited. The fight between these two, who are constantly chasing each other on various issues and competing for dominance in the technology sector, started over the ranking method of Apple's App Store.

Musk has accused Apple of giving OpenAI an unfair advantage as a partner, something both Apple and Altman have denied. 

The personal accusations between Musk and Altman have now gained a lot of attention on social media. Both have openly challenged each other on X. This dispute started last Monday. Musk accused Apple of "clearly violating antitrust laws" by saying that "it is impossible for any AI company other than OpenAI to reach the number 1 position in Apple's App Store." Musk has also announced that XAI will take immediate legal action against Apple. He claims that Apple's rules unfairly benefited ChatGPT and that his chatbot Grok was neglected.

Altman responded quickly to Musk's claim. "Musk used X (then Twitter) for his own personal gain and to benefit his companies  I've heard that

s are cleverly used to the detriment of their competitors,' says Altman, 'Knowing this, the accusations he's trying to make against Apple are ridiculous.'

More irritated by Altman's response on social media, Musk has responded in an insulting style. "Your stupid X post has more than 3 million views, it makes you a liar," Musk says, "Even though I have 50 times more followers than you, many of my posts don't get that many views."

As the controversy escalated, Musk even targeted Altman's sister, Ann, and made very personal comments saying that 'Sam abused her'. Last January, Ann Altman made such accusations against brother Sam. Even Sam and his mother strongly and categorically denied the allegations. They said that Aan was suffering from mental illness. 

In the midst of these accusations, Musk's own AI platform, Grok, advocated for Altman, and it became more interesting. Grock also submitted some examples of how Musk's claims against Apple are weak. Grok recalled the fact that apps like Dipsic and Perplexity AI have also hit the No. 1 spot on the App Store in 2025. Grok went on to call Musk's claim hypocritical, citing earlier reports that Musk had altered X's algorithm to push his posts to as many accounts as possible. 

Adding to the controversy, OpenAI's ChatGPT praised Grok's post on its official X account, calling it a "nice bot". Musk responded by posting a screenshot to chatgpt with the caption, "You're cool too." In that screenshot, Musk asks Altman's ChatGPT, who is more trustworthy between himself and Altman? When asked the question, ChatGPT seems to have answered Musk. Posting that screenshot, Musk wrote, "Take a look." 

Behind all this personal sarcasm, Musk's main complaint is linked to Apple's 'must-have apps' list and 'top free apps' chart. There chatgpt appears prominently but grok does not. According to Reuters, citing data from Sensor Tower, ChatGPT is now the number one free iPhone app in the US. Grok is fifth and Google's Gemini is in 57th place. 

The personal feud between Musk and Altman dates back to 2016/17. Initially, the two co-founded OpenAI with other founders, but Musk later left after ownership disputes arose. Since then, Musk has consistently questioned OpenAI and openly criticized Altman. Musk accused Apple of "playing political games" by not promoting the Grok or X. Musk claims that this is due to Apple's partnership with OpenAI in June 2024. After that partnership, Apple made ChatGPT available on its devices like iPhone, iPad and Mac. 

X AI and OpenAI are racing for dominance in the same generative AI market. It now has OpenAI at the forefront. OpenAI, with about 500 million active users and an estimated market value of about $3 trillion, is largely free to use by X users and lags behind in revenue with a smaller market value. Musk, who has been a bitter critic of Apple on various issues including advertising on X, app store revenue and regulations, has become more open in his resistance when these two companies move forward together.