Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for trade secret theft, accusing former employees of stealing confidential information to boost the competitor’s hardware development. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that the conduct represents “only the tip of the iceberg.” The legal action comes at a crucial time for OpenAI as it works to bring its first consumer device to market.
Former Apple executives accused of bringing confidential parts and documents to OpenAI
The lawsuit names two key former employees: Tang Tan, former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, and Chang Liu, former senior system electrical engineer. Tan allegedly used insider knowledge of secret projects to grill job candidates, asking them to bring “actual parts” and “CAD design artifacts” to show to the OpenAI team. Liu, after leaving Apple in January 2026, allegedly exploited a security bug to download over a thousand pages of technical documents, including details of complex circuit boards used in Apple hardware. According to the filing, Liu joked about the exploit in messages like “LOL, so funny” without reporting it.
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A systematic pattern of stealing confidential information
Apple claims it discovered an “established pattern” of former employees bypassing corporate security procedures to bring secrets to OpenAI. Tan allegedly possessed and distributed an internal Apple “Need to Know” document to new hires before they resigned. During interviews, Tan used an Apple internal project codename to ask “What’s the plan?” regarding an unannounced product. Additionally, Cupertino alleges that OpenAI induced a trusted Apple partner to perform a proprietary metal-finishing technique by misleading it into believing it had Apple’s permission. A second longtime supplier, specializing in power and battery manufacturing, was approached with targeted questions about specific Apple components using insider terminology.
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Over 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI
The filing reveals that more than 400 people who left Apple are now employed by OpenAI. The lawsuit adds to the growing scrutiny of AI companies’ transparency, as highlighted by recent reports on Anthropic revealing Claude’s hidden reasoning space and the finding that 57% of enterprises report confident but wrong AI agents due to missing context. OpenAI’s hardware efforts are led by Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief design officer, after the $6.5 billion acquisition of his startup io, which brought over 50 engineers including Evans Hankey and Scott Cannon. None of them are named personally in the initial filing.
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Legal remedies sought and future developments
Apple seeks injunctive relief and damages, while OpenAI is developing its first smartphone, expected by 2028 according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, and a HomePod-like smart speaker. The lawsuit does not involve the agreement to integrate ChatGPT into Siri, as Apple clarified. The legal basis relies on trade secret protection, a cornerstone of intellectual property law, as explained on Wikipedia. The case raises ethical questions about unfair competition in the tech sector and the responsibility of AI companies to respect others’ intellectual property.
Source: https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/10/apple-sues-openai-trade-secret-theft
