Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok gains US market share amid sexualised images backlash, data shows

Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, has been gaining ground in the US over the past months, data showed, even as it draws global censure and regulatory scrutiny after being used to generate a wave of non-consensual sexualized images of women and minors.

US market share of the tool rose to 17.8% last month from 14% in December, and 1.9% in January 2025, according to data from ‌research firm ⁠Apptopia.

The increase ⁠bodes well for money-losing xAI, the Musk-owned startup behind Grok, which was launched about three years ago and has been spending aggressively to scale the infrastructure needed to stay competitive in Silicon Valley’s artificial intelligence race.