Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft

Apple has filed court case Friday against OpenAI on charges of theft of trade secrets and breach of contract.

The iPhone maker claims that this misconduct, which it says demonstrates a pattern of theft from OpenAI employees formerly at Apple, was directed by OpenAI’s upper management, including Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses Tan of using Apple’s confidential project codenames during OpenAI’s recruitment process, asking applicants to bring Apple hardware components to their job interviews, coaching departing Apple employees on how to circumvent the company’s security procedures and asking for details about the company’s unannounced products.

Before joining OpenAI, Tan spent 24 years at Apple, most recently as VP of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch.

The allegations come at a time when OpenAI is reportedly developing its first hardware product, which would likely compete with the iPhone. In April, industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that this device could be a smartphone that would rely on AI agents instead of apps. If true, this would be one of the biggest threats to Apple’s core hardware business yet.

Apple’s former chief designer Jony Ive’s device startup io was acquired by OpenAI last year in a $6.5 billion deal to help the AI ​​company with its hardware ambitions. Although io was mentioned in the filing, Ive was not.

Tan is not the only OpenAI employee referenced in the new complaint. Apple claims that too Chang Liu, who worked at Apple for eight years as a senior systems electrical engineer, failed to return an Apple-issued laptop after leaving the company for OpenAI in 2026 and used the computer to download confidential technical documents from Apple.

Apple says in the complaint that the stolen documents contained information about unannounced technologies, features and products, including technical specifications, technical presentations and proprietary project data.

Liu is also accused in the lawsuit of sharing Apple’s confidential information with other Apple employees applying for a job at OpenAI, advising at least one of them on what to study before their job interview.

Apple sent a letter to OpenAI in February to express its concerns, but received no response, the company said in the complaint.

It is alleged that the behavior of these former employees is part of OpenAI’s strategy to extract Apple’s confidential information, which includes asking Apple employees to bring designs and prototypes to their interviews, and answer questions about things like component and supplier selection processes.

Apple says its ongoing investigation has revealed that OpenAI and its partners even used Apple’s confidential information while the AI ​​modeler developed its own hardware product. For example, the filing cites a proprietary metal finishing technique that OpenAI used after it allegedly tricked a partner into believing it had Apple’s permission to do so.

Like many technology companies, Apple typically investigates potential theft of trade secrets or other improper activity by analyzing communications that occurred on company-owned devices and reading server logs. Taking the matter to court gives Apple the opportunity to learn more about the extent of the alleged operation through the legal discovery process.

Apple is asking the court to ban OpenAI from using or disclosing its trade secrets, require the company to return confidential Apple materials and preserve evidence related to the case.

“This is the tip of the iceberg. Apple has no visibility into what happens behind closed doors at OpenAI, where such misconduct is normalized and exemplified by leadership,” the filing said. “As a natural result, OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to the core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets.”

In a prepared statement, Apple also said the following:

At Apple, our teams continually develop breakthrough technologies to create the best products and services in the world, and protecting their work and intellectual property is something we take very seriously. Recently, significant evidence has emerged indicating that individuals working at OpenAI have improperly acquired Apple’s secret and confidential information about our unreleased technologies, processes and products. We will always champion the hard work and innovations of our teams and we take all appropriate steps to do so.

OpenAI was asked for comment. The company responded after publication: referring to the public statement shared on Xwhich states: “We have no interest in the trade secrets of other companies. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”

The file is available hereor you can read it below.

This story is developing and will be updated. It was originally published at 1:32 PM PT.