Elon Musk has said: Apple, AAPL, 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

Elon Musk claims Apple has made it “impossible” for any AI app other than ChatGPT to reach the top spot on the App Store — but recent history shows otherwise. Earlier this year, China’s DeepSeek did just that, and data suggests Musk’s own Grok app may have as well.

As of now, Grok sits at No. 5 on Apple’s free app chart, four places behind ChatGPT. On Monday, Musk accused Apple — without offering evidence — of manipulating rankings, calling the behavior “an unequivocal antitrust violation” and vowing that xAI would take legal action. Apple integrated ChatGPT into iOS through a partnership with OpenAI last year.

Users on X quickly added a “community note” to Musk’s post, highlighting that DeepSeek’s flagship R1 model, released January 20, reached No. 1 by January 26, temporarily unseating ChatGPT. In July, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas posted an App Store screenshot from India showing his company’s app at the top spot, ahead of ChatGPT.

Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower reports Grok may have also reached No. 1 in February. After xAI made Grok-3 free on February 19, downloads surged, and the app led the free chart for two days, according to both Sensor Tower’s data and screenshots shared by X users. A Polymarket wager from that period asking if Grok would top the chart was later resolved in the affirmative.

Both DeepSeek and Perplexity’s climbs to No. 1 occurred months after Apple’s partnership with OpenAI was announced in June 2024.