Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging the artificial intelligence company used stolen trade secrets to build its consumer hardware business.
The complaint names OpenAI's chief hardware officer Tang Yew Tan as a defendant alongside Chang Liu, a former Apple electrical engineer. The hardware startup io Products is also named in the filing, along with OpenAI Foundation and OpenAI Group PBC. Jony Ive, whose company OpenAI acquired for $6.4 billion, is not named. OpenAI has not announced when or what its hardware products will be, but CEO Sam Altman said in November that the company had finished its first prototypes.
"This much is clear, however: at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple's trade secrets and confidential information," Apple wrote in its complaint.
An Apple spokesperson said:
"Recently, significant evidence has emerged suggesting individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took Apple's secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes, and products."
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company was reviewing the court filing, according to The Guardian reporting.
"We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere," he said.
What Apple alleges Liu did after leaving the company
Liu left Apple in January after eight years. According to the complaint, he failed to return a company-issued laptop. While at OpenAI, he then accessed Apple's internal network through a previously unknown authentication vulnerability.
"While employed by OpenAI, Mr. Liu also exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug to access Apple's shared network folders," Apple's attorneys wrote. "Upon discovering that he had this unauthorized access to Apple's systems, Mr. Liu did not report it, return his stolen Apple-issued work laptop, or delete the program that allowed the access."
Apple alleges Liu downloaded dozens of confidential hardware files covering unreleased products and engineering specifications. The complaint also says OpenAI coached departing Apple employees on how to evade the company's security processes when they left.
How Tan's interviewing process is described in the complaint
Tan spent 24 years at Apple before he became OpenAI's chief hardware officer. Apple's complaint alleges he used internal Apple project names during job interviews and asked candidates about products that had not been released.
"He has directed job candidates still working for Apple to bring 'actual parts' from Apple to their interviews for 'show and tell' sessions in which he and his team at OpenAI can elicit still more Apple confidential information," the filing states.
Apple says it contacted OpenAI in February with concerns about confidential information flowing into the company and received no response. OpenAI's hardware division has hired more than 400 former Apple employees, according to the complaint.
The filing also alleges OpenAI asked hardware manufacturing partners to use a metal finishing technique Apple invented, while leading those partners to believe they had Apple's permission to use it.
"OpenAI's nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets," Apple wrote.
A partnership that collapsed into litigation
The lawsuit is a stark reversal for two companies that publicly aligned in 2024. That deal integrated ChatGPT into Apple's operating systems for iPhones and Macs as part of Apple Intelligence, with Altman attending the announcement at Apple's headquarters alongside CEO Tim Cook.
Relations between the companies deteriorated after OpenAI moved into hardware through its $6.4 billion acquisition of IO Products. Apple's revamped Siri, expected this fall, will use Google's Gemini models rather than OpenAI's technology. Apple did not say whether Friday's lawsuit would affect the existing ChatGPT integration in Apple Intelligence.
OpenAI's other trade secret disputes and what Apple is asking the court to order
The lawsuit arrives two months after OpenAI won a federal jury trial against Elon Musk. The jury found that Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, had waited too long to sue over claims that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman reneged on agreements to operate the company as a nonprofit. Musk said he would appeal.
A separate trade secret dispute came from xAI, Musk's AI company, which sued OpenAI in September with allegations that the company recruited former employees to obtain confidential source code and data center strategies. A federal judge dismissed that case in June after xAI failed to show OpenAI had encouraged a former employee to share confidential information.
Apple's case differs from the xAI dispute in its specifics. The complaint includes physical evidence: a laptop Liu did not return and a network intrusion through an authentication vulnerability. It also targets a recruiting process Apple says was structured to extract confidential information from current Apple employees.
Apple is seeking damages and an injunction to prevent OpenAI and its named defendants from possessing or using its trade secrets.
Tanya Petrusenko
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