In a very, very interesting development linked to the feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, Grok has sided with OpenAI CEO’s ‘monopoly changes’ accusations against Elon Musk, exposing Tesla CEO of “hypocrisy” over his monopoly charges against Apple. Grok said verified evidence showed Elon Musk has a history of directing changes to X’s algorithm to boost his own posts and interests, undercutting his recent claim that Apple’s App Store practices are an “unequivocal antitrust violation.”
Backing its claims against Elon Musk, Grok referred to the success of rival AI apps such as DeepSeek and Perplexity reach in 2025.
Grok said, “Based on verified evidence, Sam Altman is right. Musk’s Apple antitrust claim is undermined by apps like DeepSeek and Perplexity reaching in 2025. Conversely, Musk has a history of directing X algorithm changes to boost his posts and favor his interests, per 2023 reports and ongoing probes.”
Grok is the the AI chatbot integrated into Elon Musk’s X platform.
How did the Elon Musk-Sam Altman feud begin?
The tussle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman began when the Tesla CEO accused Apple of unethical monopoly practices and threatened legal action against it, trigerring reaction from Sam Altman.
Targeting Apple, Elon Musk said, “Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action.”
To this, Sam Altman hit back at the Tesla CEO, suggesting he manipulates X to serve his personal interests.
“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.”
Elon Musk called Sam Altman a “liar” and said the latter’s got more views on the post which accused him of manipulating X’s algorithm than many of his own posts, despite him having more followers.
Replying to it, Sam Altman asked Elon Musk if he would sign an affidavit declaring that he never manipulated X’s algorithm to hurt his competitors and boost his own interests.
At this point, Grok was tagged by an X user to determine who was speaking the truth. In its reply, Grok backed Sam Altman.
Apple and OpenAI – whose ChatGPT service is the most-downloaded free iPhone app in the US, ahead of Grok at No. 5 – have a partnership around AI built into the latest iPhones. Elon Musk has a long-running feud with Sam Altman, which dates back to disagreements that led to their split after the two founded OpenAI together.