Apple Sues OpenAI, Claiming It Stole Hardware Trade Secrets
Apple sued OpenAI in federal court in Northern California on Friday, accusing the ChatGPT maker of building its first consumer hardware device on a foundation of stolen Apple trade secrets. The complaint names two former Apple employees as defendants and describes a coordinated effort, reaching into OpenAI's most senior hardware leadership, to extract confidential information about unreleased Apple products.
The lawsuit is a remarkable turn for two companies that announced a high-profile partnership in 2024, when Apple integrated ChatGPT into the iPhone's operating system. It also lands at a delicate moment for OpenAI, which has promised to unveil its first hardware product this year through a device effort led by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and staffed heavily with former Apple engineers. Apple says more than 400 of its former employees now work at OpenAI.
Two Named Engineers and a Laptop That Kept Working
According to the filing, Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer at Apple, left the company in January 2026 to join OpenAI without returning his work-issued laptop or sitting for an exit interview. Liu later discovered an authentication bug that let the machine keep reaching Apple's internal cloud storage after his departure, the complaint says, and he used that access to download dozens of confidential files, including technical specifications and engineering presentations tied to unreleased products.
Apple says Liu was open about the loophole. "LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny," he wrote to a former colleague, according to the complaint as reported by Axios. The filing also accuses Liu of coaching another Apple employee he was recruiting, advising her on how to copy files without tripping Apple's security team and suggesting which confidential material to review before her OpenAI interview.
The second named defendant is Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI's chief hardware officer. Tan spent 24 years at Apple, rising to vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, and co-founded io Products, the hardware startup OpenAI acquired in 2025. Apple alleges that in his final months at the company Tan emailed himself supplier information and internal summaries of the consumer electronics industry, and that after joining OpenAI he used job interviews to pull Apple secrets out of candidates, including asking them to bring actual Apple components such as batteries and logic boards for show-and-tell sessions.
The complaint goes further. It alleges Tan circulated an internal Apple offboarding document to teach incoming OpenAI hires how to avoid detection during Apple's exit security checks, and that he used Apple's internal project codenames to draw more detail out of interviewees. Apple also claims OpenAI approached its manufacturing partners while armed with confidential Apple information, and in one case led a partner to demonstrate a proprietary metal-finishing technique by implying Apple had approved the disclosure.
Apple is seeking damages for trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract, along with a court order forcing OpenAI to stop using Apple trade secrets and to preserve and return Apple materials.
OpenAI Pushes Back
OpenAI rejected the accusations. "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets," a company spokesperson said, adding that OpenAI remains focused on building technology for its users. The company has not yet filed a formal response in court.
Notably, Jony Ive is not named as a defendant. Ive began collaborating with OpenAI in 2023, co-founded io Products with Tan, and now leads OpenAI's device work following the io acquisition. The complaint targets the company and the two engineers rather than the design leadership around the product itself.
A Partnership That Curdled
The suit caps more than a year of deteriorating relations between the two companies. The 2024 deal that put ChatGPT inside iOS was once held up as a model of AI distribution. By May of this year, Bloomberg and The New York Times were reporting that OpenAI had considered its own legal action against Apple, including a possible breach of contract notice tied to the partnership.
The timing is pointed. OpenAI has been teasing hardware announcements, including a small Codex-branded desk device it plans to show on July 15, and executives have said a flagship device would arrive in 2026. A trade secrets case, with discovery into how that hardware was designed and who designed it, now hangs over the entire program. If Apple wins an injunction covering designs it says were derived from its confidential information, OpenAI's device timeline could slip badly.
What It Means for Founders and Operators
Strip away the marquee names and this is a case about hiring, and it carries lessons for any startup recruiting from a large incumbent. Poaching talent is legal. Acquiring the incumbent's files, components, and process knowledge along with that talent is not, and the complaint is a catalog of the behaviors that turn a recruiting pipeline into a litigation event: interview show-and-tells, self-emailed supplier lists, retained laptops, and coaching candidates on evading security review.
The practical takeaways are unglamorous but cheap compared to a federal lawsuit. Instruct interviewers in writing never to ask candidates for a former employer's confidential information, and shut down any candidate who offers it. Make new hires certify they brought nothing with them. On the other side of the door, Apple's own experience shows why offboarding discipline matters: a returned laptop and a working access-revocation process would have closed the hole the complaint describes.
There is also a partnership lesson. Apple and OpenAI were collaborators who became competitors while the contract was still live. Founders signing distribution deals with platform owners should assume the relationship can invert, and should read the confidentiality and non-solicitation terms as if it already has.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI actually claim?
Apple alleges trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract, claiming OpenAI and two former Apple employees systematically solicited and took confidential information about unreleased Apple hardware, from downloaded engineering files to physical components brought to job interviews. Apple wants damages, the return of its materials, and an order barring OpenAI from using them.
Who are the former Apple employees named in the suit?
Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer who allegedly kept his Apple laptop and used an authentication bug to download confidential files after joining OpenAI, and Tang Yew Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran who is now OpenAI's chief hardware officer and who allegedly extracted Apple information through interviews and self-emailed documents.
Could the lawsuit delay OpenAI's hardware device?
It could. Discovery will probe how OpenAI's device was designed, and an injunction covering designs derived from Apple confidential information could force rework or block a launch. OpenAI has signaled its first devices would ship in 2026, so even months of delay would be costly.
Is Jony Ive named in the lawsuit?
No. Apple's former chief design officer, who co-founded io Products and now leads OpenAI's device work, is not a defendant. The complaint focuses on OpenAI itself and the two named former Apple engineers.
What should startup founders take away from this case?
Hire people, not files. Put written rules around interviews and onboarding so candidates never share a former employer's confidential material, tighten your own offboarding so departing employees lose access immediately, and treat big-company partnerships as relationships that can turn adversarial while the contract is still in force.