Apple Vs OpenAI: Trade Secret Lawsuit Targets Former Apple Executives And AI Hardware Plans

Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and two former Apple employees, alleging a coordinated scheme to steal the iPhone maker's confidential trade secrets to benefit the ChatGPT owner's push into consumer hardware. The complaint, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, hardware startup io Products , former senior electrical engineer Chang Liu and former Apple design vice president Tang Tan as defendants.

Apple alleges that Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple working on iPhone and Apple Watch design before departing in 2024 and later co-founding io Products with Jony Ive , used confidential Apple project codenames during OpenAI's hiring process to extract information from job candidates still employed at Apple. The filing claims Tan directed candidates to bring actual Apple hardware components to interviews for so called show and tell sessions, and that he distributed an internal Apple document outlining departure security protocols to new OpenAI hires before they resigned.

Liu, who spent eight years at Apple before joining OpenAI in January 2026, is accused of exploiting a security flaw to access Apple's network storage after leaving the company, downloading a compilation of technical files running over a thousand pages that reportedly included detailed manufacturing documents for Apple's circuit boards. Apple claims Liu also failed to return a company issued laptop. The lawsuit further alleges that OpenAI approached one of Apple's trusted manufacturing partners and misled it into believing it had Apple's permission to use a proprietary metal finishing technique.

Apple's filing states that the pattern of alleged misconduct runs from junior technical staff up to OpenAI's chief hardware officer, describing OpenAI's hardware business as resting on misappropriated trade secrets. The company is seeking a jury trial, a preliminary injunction requiring the defendants to preserve evidence and stop using Apple's technology, the return of all trade secrets, and a redesign of any AI devices built using the disputed information.

The dispute marks a sharp reversal for two companies that partnered in 2024 to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and Apple's broader software ecosystem. Tensions have grown since OpenAI acquired io Products in a deal reportedly worth between 6.4 and 6.5 billion dollars, deepening its ambitions in consumer devices rumored to include a smartphone and a smart speaker. Apple's suit notes that more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI. In a statement, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company has no interest in other companies' trade secrets. The lawsuit lands as OpenAI prepares for an anticipated public listing and works to unveil its first hardware device later this year, while Apple readies its own revamped version of Siri.