Apple has sued OpenAI and two former Apple employees, alleging a coordinated effort to steal the company’s trade secrets as the artificial intelligence firm works to build its own hardware for ChatGPT. The complaint, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California, marks a significant rupture in a partnership between the two companies that began in 2024, when ChatGPT was first integrated into Apple’s operating system.
The lawsuit names Chang Liu, a former senior systems electrical engineer at Apple, and Tang Tan, a former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch who now serves as OpenAI’s Chief Hardware Officer, along with OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, and io Products. Apple alleges that Liu failed to return a company issued laptop after leaving for OpenAI earlier this year and later used an authentication bug to access Apple’s internal network, downloading dozens of confidential hardware related files, including detailed information about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and proprietary project data.
Apple also alleges that Tan had been methodically using the company’s confidential information to benefit OpenAI, including emailing himself details about Apple’s suppliers and internal industry summaries before his departure. According to the filing, Tan directed job candidates still working at Apple to bring actual hardware parts to their OpenAI interviews for what the complaint describes as show and tell sessions, with one candidate reportedly telling Tan he had not realised he could take such items from the office. Apple further claims Tan used the company’s internal project codenames during recruiting to draw out additional confidential information from prospective hires.
Beyond the two named individuals, Apple said more than 400 former employees now work at OpenAI, adding that it is not surprising some of them retain knowledge of its confidential information. The company argued in its filing that OpenAI employing people once entrusted with Apple’s trade secrets does not entitle the AI firm to use that information to accelerate its hardware efforts. Apple also alleged that OpenAI sought confidential information from its suppliers directly, citing an instance in which one supplier used a proprietary metal finishing technique for OpenAI after being misled into believing the AI company had Apple’s permission to do so.
OpenAI acquired hardware startup io Products, founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, last year in a 6.5 billion dollar deal as part of its push to move beyond software into consumer hardware, though Ive himself is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. OpenAI has not disclosed details about the device it is building, describing it only as an effort to find new ways for people to interact with AI beyond traditional screens and interfaces. In its complaint, Apple said it had written to OpenAI in February raising concerns that its confidential information was reaching the AI company, but received no response. A source had separately told Reuters in May that OpenAI was exploring its own legal options against Apple over a possible breach of contract related to their partnership, though it remained unclear at the time whether a formal lawsuit would follow. Apple is asking the court to bar OpenAI from using or disclosing its trade secrets and to require the return of any confidential material obtained through the alleged scheme.
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