Apple has sued OpenAI, alleging that engineers stole Apple secrets to advance the AI startup’s hardware plans. In its complaint, Apple says it uncovered “a pattern of theft of Apple’s trade secrets by OpenAI employees who were formerly at Apple.” In addition to OpenAI, the lawsuit also names IO Products — Jony Ive’s hardware startup, which OpenAI bought in 2025 — along with two specific employees, Tang Tan (OpenAI’s chief hardware officer) and Chang Liu (who joined OpenAI from Apple in January).
An Apple spokesperson shared this statement with 9to5Mac:
At Apple, our teams are constantly developing 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 suggesting individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took Apple’s secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes, and products. We will always defend our teams’ hard work and innovations, and we are taking all appropriate steps to do so.
Apple and OpenAI didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment from The Verge.
Liu is accused of accessing Apple’s systems after leaving the company and downloading information, including “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files, including voluminous, detailed information about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and proprietary project data.” He is also said to have instructed a former Apple colleague on how to copy confidential Apple files and “avoid trouble” with the company’s security team ahead of her joining OpenAI. Liu allegedly told her they should communicate over Line Messenger to avoid being detected.
“Mr. Liu’s material breaches of his contract are equally clear and deliberate: he accessed, copied, and directed the disclosure of Apple Confidential Information after his employment ended, in direct violation of his post-termination obligations,” Apple says.
“This is a systematic effort to acquire, retain, and use Apple’s trade secrets to help OpenAI”
Apple alleges that Tan has been “methodically using Apple’s confidential information to benefit OpenAI,” including emailing information to himself about Apple suppliers before leaving the company and asking for confidential Apple information when interviewing Apple employees for OpenAI jobs.
OpenAI has also told Apple staffers to bring things like “CAD/design artifacts” and “prototypes” to interviews, according to the suit. “This is a systematic effort to acquire, retain, and use Apple’s trade secrets to help OpenAI try to replicate the secret technologies, business processes, and supply chain innovations that took Apple decades to build in its consumer hardware business,” Apple says.
Apple alleges that OpenAI has also been “targeting Apple’s prized partner network and supply chain directly,” including having an Apple partner, which works with Apple on industrial design and metal-finishing techniques, “perform Apple’s proprietary, trade secret processes for OpenAI’s benefit.”
More than 400 former Apple staffers now work at OpenAI, Apple claims. The company accuses OpenAI of advising Apple staffers that are departing to let OpenAI know if Apple personnel “ask you to sign anything.”
Apple says it reached out to OpenAI in February to raise its concerns and ask OpenAI to say what it was doing to look into the problem. “OpenAI never responded,” according to Apple.
OpenAI’s first hardware product is expected to arrive next year. In the lawsuit, Apple casts doubt on OpenAI’s ability to ship — at least without relying on Apple’s work. “OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations,” the lawsuit says, “rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets.”